Rekindle the Stars
by teawithmugi
Summary: The world has fallen, and the Precure were defeated. Caught by surprise by a massive attack from all their enemies at once, they had no choice but to run and scatter all over the world. Even so, the Precure will not let the world fall into darkness: though the light of the stars are gone, the Precures' hope still shines on. (AU involving all seasons so far.)
1. Death of the Stars

One by one the stars went out, snuffed out by a darkness so thick that it seemed so close to smothering even the lights beneath the starless sky, and Nozomi could do nothing but watch. The Palmier Kingdom was all aflame, its burning houses a thousand torches in the dark, but even those fires seemed too dim as the utter blackness of the sky drank all the colors from the world. They too faded away one by one as the buildings began to collapse, leaving only ruins behind.

A sickening smell of ash and smoke went deep into Nozomi's nose when she breathed, until she could feel nothing else. Far away, she still heard the fire crackling, mocking her for her failure. The exhaustion made the fairy on her hands seem so heavy, but she could not leave Coco behind. He was the only fairy she had found in the ruins of the kingdom. Unconscious, hurt, but alive.

She looked up again, hoping to see a flimsy sparkle, a star that dared defy the darkness, but the sky was now only a canvas where too much black ink had spilled, nothing to do but watch it engulf everything in its path. With nothing else to do, Cure Dream turned the other way, and began to run.

From what, she did not know, but she could hear something chasing after her. Heavy footsteps, booming behind her, following her endlessly. She ran across the barren land, through clouds of brown dust. Under her feet was only dry, fissured stone, without the slightest sign that there had ever been a living thing there. But Nozomi knew that just one day ago, this place had been a forest of lush greens, of all sorts of plants that Nozomi never thought existed. Just one week before, she and Komachi had walked there together, on their way to the Palmier Kingdom. The others could not come; Rin was needed at the Trump Kingdom, Lemonade at Majorland, and Aqua had been given a secret mission from Cure Mirage. She wondered where they were now, and hoped they had better luck than Komachi.

Mint had stayed behind so that Dream could escape with the prince of the Palmier Kingdom. Reluctantly, Nozomi left her behind, but now she wished she hadn't. She should have stayed there to fight. But now, she knew, it was too late to turn back. She had to find the other Precure, wherever they were. If there were any of them left.

Nozomi didn't dare to look behind her, to see what horrors pursued her. Nightmare was behind her, she knew, but it wasn't only Nightmare that attacked the Palmier Kingdom this time. Under the night's veil, someone had opened the gates for Nightmare, for Eternal, for the Desert Apostles. Whey they were suddenly working together, no one could tell, but it seemed to be like this all over the world. They had gotten messages from Cures Marine, Sword, White and Muse, all of them asking for help, all of them attacked by many enemies all at once. As the hours passed by and Dream and Mint tried to keep the invaders at bay, the news they got from other lands became worse.

The Heart Tree has burned down. Verone Academy has fallen. We lost contact with Cure Tender. The Trump Kingdom lies in ruins. Send help, please. Please…

There was no help coming, even Nozomi could tell, not for her, and not for anyone. One by one the stars went out as one by one the Starlight Flames were extinguished. One by one the realms fell.

Nozomi ran through the night with no stars to guide her. She did not know where she was going, and only followed the wind. Soon, she could not hear her pursuers anymore, and silence fell over the world. Coco hadn't awakened yet, and the little strength she had left was beginning to fail her, and she could barely hold on to him. Still, Nozomi did not give up, and kept him close until the night was over.

The sun rose red, a bleeding wound in the sky. It brought no comfort nor solace, burning so brightly that it hurt Nozomi's eyes. Hungry and weary, she sat down, for a moment, to rest, gently placing the unconscious fairy on the ground next to her. Hours before, her legs hurt, but now she didn't even feel them anymore. Her belly rumbled and ached, its emptiness almost too uncomfortable to bear. Her mouth was dry and her lips were cracked, painful to the touch. On instinct, she reached for her bag, but she didn't have it.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. In her haste she had forgotten to take it with her. Her waterskin was there, and some food as well. Why did she always forget things like this? Usually Rin would call her empty-headed then give her some of her food, but Rin wasn't here. Instead, she would starve. How lucky, she thought, to escape the destruction of the Palmier Kingdom, only to die anyways, a slow death, because of her foolishness. Her fist hit the ground in anger, making a cracking sound. It didn't help at all; it only made her body hurt more.

Nozomi poked at the fairy's furry belly, but Coco didn't react at all. She could feel his heart beating quick, but otherwise he showed no sign of life. He too would hunger when he woke up, Nozomi realized. Well, if he woke up. There was no guarantee of that at all. Still, if he did, Nozomi had no idea how she would feed him, when she had no idea how to find any food for herself.

She looked around, and saw little but lifeless rock, cliffs like spears pointing at the empty skies. It seemed like the earth itself had been torn apart, its surface cut to shreds and rearranged randomly. Far away, she saw mountains rising high, then suddenly disappearing. The landscape was cut by the course of empty rivers where nothing flowed, sinkholes that lead to nowhere and did not seem to have an end, everything colored a dull grey.

By far the worst blight in the world, however, was that huge tower looming over everything. It seemed taller than any mountain, almost cutting the sky. From atop it, Nozomi had no doubt that you could see for countless miles. From where she stood, she could see hundreds of little black dots on the walls, windows to Nightmare's office. And the worst thing is that this building wasn't there just yesterday.

She hadn't forgotten her CureMo, at least. She turned it on and looked at its white screen. She touched a button to try to contact the other Precure, but none answered her calls. Rouge was the first she phoned, but all Nozomi got in response was silence. That too was the answer she got from Lemonade, from Aqua. The Cures from Majorland didn't answer either, or the ones from the Phoenix Tower, and the Land of Fountains was silent was well. Had they too been conquered? Nozomi didn't want to think so, but what else could she believe?

Sighing, she picked up Coco's limp body again. She could feel his breath when she put him close to her face, but no matter how much she tried to awaken him, he didn't. But she could not abandon him, so she went on her way, not knowing where to go, but knowing she couldn't stop moving.

Warm winds blew as the ardent sun scorched her back. Nozomi glimpsed at it for a second, but the light blinded her. Quickly she learned to avoid the red sun, to walk in the shadow. That did not make it any less hot, but at least she could still see.

Dream wondered where she was. She couldn't tell by looking at her surroundings; this land was broken beyond recognition. She was going north, she thought, but had no way to be sure. If she really was headed north, then she was probably at the Montblanc Kingdom's borders now, though they did not look at all like it. No, she thought, it wasn't right. There would be many towns along the way if I really was headed north. Unless they were all gone…

Then again, that would be completely unlike Nightmare. They didn't destroy, they dominated, enslaving those who lived on lands they controlled. This couldn't be the road north, Nozomi decided. South, then, to the Bavarois Kingdom? Did it even matter anymore? Everything was gone, it seemed. Even the stars had been robbed of them.

She kept walking, even when the pain returned. She had to find someone, she could not give up. So long as she tried to look for survivors, for other Precure, they hadn't lost yet. If she gave in to exhaustion, to despair, and let herself fall and wait for hunger to take her, then the Precure were truly defeated. As far as Nozomi knew, she could very well be the last of the Pretty Cure, the last light still shining, so she had to fight even harder.

Nozomi walked through narrow paths between the rocks, through pitch black caves that she had no way of knowing would lead her anywhere. The world was buried in mournful silence broken only by the sound of her footsteps on the lifeless earth and, sometimes, when it was very quiet, Coco's pained breathing. His chest rose and lowered slowly, his strained body trying its best to stay alive. He wouldn't last much longer. He was close to her chest now as she gave him all her warmth, and she could feel his wheezing, his effort to breathe, but Nozomi did not know what to do. Inori was the one who always took care of sick fairies, and Karen could also always nurse them to good health when they fell ill, but Nozomi couldn't even begin to imagine what to do. If this poor fairy died in her arms… Just the thought made her want to cry, but somehow she didn't. Maybe she didn't have any tears left now that she couldn't even remember how water felt like.

When the sun set, Nozomi almost missed it, blinding as it was. At least during the day she could still see. The last night she had her magic's light to help her know where she walked, but now even that that was too much of a strain on her body. She hardly had the energy to keep moving, where would she find power to use magic? It was a miracle that she hadn't been found by any enemies, because if she had, she knew she wouldn't be able to fight back. Did they know she was still alive? Even if they did, maybe they decided it was too much effort to hunt her down. She would succumb to thirst soon enough, after all. Why waste your time on the dead?

No, not dead, never dead. That would mean she gave up, and that was just unacceptable. This would not be the first time the Precure found themselves in a dire, hopeless situation, but if they had ever given up, then Nozomi wouldn't even be there, she wouldn't even have the chance to fight. Time and time again the Precure found hope where it seemed like there wasn't any. Nozomi would just have to do the same, somehow. Somehow…

In the dark, all she had to guide her was the wind blowing against stone, and even that wasn't much help. Nozomi extended her hand to feel the rocks around her, walking slowly and carefully, always making sure that there was solid ground under her before she put her foot down. To fall on a hole she didn't see would be too humiliating, and she didn't think she had the strength to get up if that happened.

Far away, she heard a sound, she thought. Nozomi focused on it, to try and tell what it was, but it was too distant. It might not even be there, actually. Maybe her hearing was beginning to go, maybe she was mad from thirst and hunger… But what choice did she have? She couldn't think of any better options, so she followed the faint noise until she could hear more clearly.

It sounded like water flowing. In truth, there was no way of knowing if it was water, but it was the first thing that came to Nozomi's mind. She prayed she was right, and kept going, stone brushing against her face as her path narrowed more and more, until she had to squeeze between the rocks to get past. The sound was louder now, and for once, Nozomi felt some relief. She might just survive after all. The fairy in her arms, though… Well, no use worrying about that just now. First she had to reach the water.

Light, she thought, and a small pink star shone on the tip of her finger. It was not much, but it was enough for her to see what was just in front of her. Tall and thick trunks, leaves that would cover the stars in the sky, if there were any. It felt as if there was still life in this place. Now it was not dry rock that touched her face, but big leaves caressing her as she walked. Nozomi tried to remember what forest this could be, but she was too weak to recall.

Nozomi felt as if her last strengths were leaving her, the light in her heart growing dimmer by the second. Her vision was getting blurry, and her body felt as if it was being torn apart from every side. Pain grabbed her legs, her arms, her head, and pulled them all at the same time. Dream knew she had no energy but the one she was using now, so if she was wrong, if her last hope failed her and she couldn't find any water, that would be the end. But no, it couldn't be the end, the sound was so close now, she could hear it, she could almost smell fresh water in the air. That made her even thirstier, even though she thought her craving couldn't possibly be any greater.

When the lake appeared in front of her, Nozomi fell to her knees, and almost threw herself on its waters. Instead she put Coco atop a pile of soft leaves, and scooped out as much water as her hands could hold, and buried her face in it. Most of the water she didn't even drink, and instead Nozomi just felt it against her dry skin. She had almost forgotten how it felt. The water was warm, but not unpleasantly so. On the surface of the lake were leaves that had fallen from the canopy, but Nozomi easily avoided them. She drank until she was satisfied, and then drank even more. She still hungered, but it was easier to survive on an empty stomach then on a dehydrated body. Karen had taught her that, and Nozomi never forgot the things that Karen said.

Nozomi splashed some drops of water on Coco's face, hoping that might awaken him, but it was in vain. She opened his tiny mouth and gently gave him some to drink. She feared he might choke, but he didn't. His breathing relaxed, too, and he didn't look like he was at death's door anymore. Nozomi smiled again, finally. At least something didn't go wrong.

She laid down next to him, resting her head on fallen foliage. After everything she had been through, it felt more comfortable than any pillow she had ever known. The light that shone on her hand went out, and she closed her eyes. Odd, she thought for a moment before the darkness of sleep took her. It felt so cold.

* * *

><p>The night was dark, but Reika's eyes had gotten used to it. Not enough that she could see her path clearly, of course, but at least she wasn't tripping on vines. It had been one day since the stars went out, closer to two days now, yet it felt like a lifetime had passed since they last shone.<p>

She hadn't found anyone yet, though perhaps that was for the best. When she escaped Märchenland's capital, both Nightmare and the Bad End Kingdom gave chase, putting some of their best hunters on her trail. So far Beauty had managed to outrun them, even find a temporary shelter, but if they found her, she did not know if she'd be able to fight them off.

Most importantly, though, was finding another living Cure. Reika knew there was no way she'd be the only survivor. No, that made no sense. Moonlight still lived, she was sure of that, and Mirage as well. They always seemed unbeatable, and Reika could just not believe that they'd be caught unaware. They would never let the Precure fall. They were still there, Reika only had to find them.

And find herself as well, of course. She had fled to the west, to the other fairy kingdoms. Most likely, she was in the Doughnut Kingdom now, or, at least, close to it. She had found a village on her way, but when she tried to talk to its inhabitants, she saw their faces hidden by masks, and they simply ignored her. They were fairies, most of them, but some humans lived there as well, but they too were masked, silent. At once Reika recognized it as Nightmare's work, and that was when she understood that it was not just Märchenland that had fallen. It was the whole world. Only that could explain the death of the stars, too; they shone because of the Starlight Flames, sacred relics of an era long gone by. So long as the Starlight Flames were alight, the stars would burn as well.

But now the skies were dark, and the stars were all dead. Darkness had fallen over the world, and Reika could just barely see her surroundings. A forest, large and dense. There were supposed to be all sorts of critters here, she had read about the fauna of the Doughnut Kingdom, but all she saw were spiders. There was no sound of life, no chirping of birds, nothing but water calmly flowing in the distance. Reika's waterskin was almost empty, she remembered. She should fill it.

Oddly, she felt at peace when she sat next to the lake. Tiny leaves were blown against her face, but Reika only brushed them away. The scent of water filled the air, a pleasant smell. She touched the surface of the lake with the tip of her fingers, and suddenly felt cold. Where she touched, the water began to freeze. She took out her fingers, and the ice melted immediately, but the breeze grew colder. She felt a strange presence; someone was nearby.

"Who is it?" She tried not to sound scared, but it was hard to; she was too used to fighting with her companions, and though she did not doubt her own skills, Reika did not want to fight alone.

There was no answer, no sound but the water, the flowing river that fed this lake. Maybe it was just her imagination… No, she knew, there was someone here. Reika looked around, and saw no one. She took careful steps, scanning her surroundings, until she stumbled on something on the ground. Before she looked at it, Reika poked it with the tip of her boot, and heard whining. It was a girl's voice.

"Who are you?" She asked, then approached to take a better look. In the dark, it was hard to tell her face, but it was definitely a girl, sleeping atop leaves. Reika asked again, but she didn't answer. She didn't know who she was, and for some reason she had a fairy with her. Reika tried to wake it up, but the fairy seemed unconscious. Why? Reika knew that Nightmare's employees were interested in fairies, and even before the kingdoms fell, they frequently kidnapped its denizens, so often that she could not help but suspect a person with an unconscious fairy.

But she didn't seem like a threat. She seemed almost like a Precure in the dark. This girl seemed exhausted, and her fairy seemed hurt. They needed help. Reika had little food for herself, and she didn't even know who this girl was, but if she was a Precure, then she definitely had to help her.

Reika picked her up, then the fairy, and carried them home. It was a bit heavy, but in the dark, she walked slowly anyways, so it made no matter. What mattered was that there were more Precure, that their hopes were not yet dead. Yes, that mattered more than anything else. That made all the pain and burdens go away.

* * *

><p>Nozomi opened her eyes, and could not recognize where she was. She jumped out of bed, startled, hands closed into fists, certain that someone had kidnapped her, and was going to hurt her and Coco. Instead she saw a blue-haired girl sitting on a chair next to her bed, smiling gently, and she felt so embarrassed, and sat down again.<p>

"Thank goodness," the girl said, her eyes meeting Nozomi's. They were a dark blue, and looked almost cold, but her smile was so warm. She felt trustworthy. "I thought you weren't going to wake up. You must have been really tired, no?"

"Y-Yes," Nozomi said, still confused. She looked around, and saw a small room with a single bed. Suddenly she felt guilty; this girl must not have slept so that she could take care of Nozomi. "Thank you for helping me and my… My friend."

"You're quite welcome," she said, eyes like winter, lips like summer. Not a harsh winter, mind you, but a pleasant one where you make yourself cozy under heavy blankets, and have hot chocolate with friends. Ah, even that seemed like such a distant memory to Nozomi now.

There was a small oven on a corner of the room, some wood right next to it. It wasn't just a room, Nozomi understood. This was the entire house. Awfully small… She wondered where she was. A painting hung on the wall, too small for Nozomi to tell what it was.

"I'm sorry if I'm being rude," Nozomi said, "but who are you?"

"I'm Reika Aoki," she said, and didn't seem to take any offense. "Cure Beauty."

Nozomi jumped up again, in shock. Reika was taken aback by that, and moved a little bit away from Nozomi.

"Sorry!" Nozomi said. "Didn't mean to startle you. It's just… You're a Precure! Like me! I didn't know if I'd be able to find any, I was almost thinking I was the last Precure, but… I'm not! You're here!"

"Calm down, please," she said, and Nozomi obeyed with difficulty. This was too good. "So you are a Precure, like I thought… Who are you, though?"

"I'm Nozomi Yumehara, Cure Dream. And you're Cure Beauty! I heard about you! You fought with Moonlight, didn't you?"

"I did, once."

"What a honor… You must be so strong if you fought by her side…"

"She did most of the fighting," Reika gestured as if asking to drop the subject. "Anyways, I found you two passed out near the lake, and I brought you here. I found this house abandoned two nights ago, so I thought it'd be alright if I took shelter here. You're looking a little bit skinny, but you're fine, I think. You fairy, however, hasn't awakened yet."

"Coco…" Nozomi had promised to protect him when she was sent to the Palmier Kingdom for duty, but clearly she failed. Nuts was gone as well, and knowing what Nightmare did to any fairies it captured, she couldn't imagine his fate was very kind.

"It's odd, though," Reika said. "I put some food in his mouth, and he ate it normally. He drank water, too. He's breathing normally, but still he won't open his eyes. Whatever ails him is likely something of magical nature. I don't know what to do."

"I don't know either," Nozomi admitted. "But at least he's not in danger, is he?"

"I think not. That's really fortunate. Still, we'll need to take care of him to make sure nothing happens. And I have no idea how to wake him up."

Reika pointed at a small wooden table, where Coco rested. It didn't seem like there was anything wrong with him now. He just looked like he was asleep.

"Beauty," Nozomi approached her, whispering, though she did not know why, "what about the other Precure? Is there any word of them?"

"My companions were at Märchenland when it was attacked," she said. "Well, most of them. Happy, Sunny and March were there with me, but Peace's presence was requested at Verone Academy just one week ago. I don't know if she ever reached it, though."

"W-Where are they now?" Nozomi asked, dreading the answer.

"I don't know," Reika said, pained. "I hope they managed to flee as well. Prince Pop helped us escape the palace, but we were separated from one another in the aftermath. Happy had princess Candy with her, too, and I pray they are safe. But other than that, I do not know."

"And the Cures from other lands?"

"I was hoping to find them," Reika said. "But I didn't have the time to search yet."

"I tried to contact them, but no one answered. The Heart Tree burned down, and Verone Academy was destroyed," when she said that, Reika let out a gasp. "The Trump Kingdom was attacked as well. That's all I know, as I heard nothing after that."

"So I was right, then… The entire world was attacked," she said, and sat down next to Nozomi. Her eyes were dull, but she seemed about to break down. "What do we do? Can we even do anything?"

"Of course we can!" Nozomi declared as she grabbed Reika's hands. "We're Precure, aren't we? We can't give up. Not now, nor ever."

"But how-"

"We are still alive, aren't we? We're weak, we're hurt, we're broken, but we're alive, and I'm sure the other Cures are alive as well. Maybe we can't talk to them yet, because their lights have gone out, like the stars in the sky, but I know they're there. They're not gone, they're just not shining right now."

"You're probably right," Reika sighed. "I'm sorry. I did not mean to be so pessimistic. It's just been hard on me. I'm still not sure about what I should do."

"It's alright," Nozomi smiled. "I don't know either. So we can figure it out together."

Reika nodded, and got up, thoughtful. She opened the door and walked outside, and Nozomi followed her.

"This is still our world, isn't it?" Reika said, looking in the distance. "Broken, but not gone... " Suddenly, she turned to Nozomi, and looked deep into her eyes. "More than any time before, we the Precure will need to stick together. I don't know where the others are, but maybe the two of us can find them. I don't like to ask for help, but I can't do it on my own, so I need you to fight with me."

"There's no shame in that," Nozomi said. "I can't do it on my own either. That's why the Precure all fight together, no?"

"You're right," she giggled.

"Well, then, it's decided!" Nozomi declared. "Let's fight together, and find the other Precure, until we can fix our world. I don't know how, but we'll think of something, right?"

"We will," she said, determined. "Somehow we'll make the stars shine again."


	2. Sanctuary

The day dawned cold, the skies colored the dark grey of heavy clouds. The red sun's light cut a hundred holes through the clouds, but even so it was too dark, too damp. Since the world fell, it had been like this. Some days were scorching hot, and Reika felt like a chunk of ice slowly melting, while others were cloudy, melancholic. The hottest days were often unbearable, but days like this were even worse. They made Reika feel like the light fighting to gleam through the clouds; no matter how hard she tried, her shining was not enough, and the darkness prevailed.

Nozomi was still asleep, and Reika felt no joy in awakening her only to see grey skies of sadness. Their small shelter was getting quite cramped now that a week had passed and they had scoured the nearby lands and cities in search of supplies. Taking things from others was against everything the Precure stood for, but they had no choice now.

They found Nozomi's bed at what had once been a small furniture store. When they searched the city together, Reika couldn't help but notice how weird it looked; the streets were deserted, but they were still clean, and the buildings were intact. Far away, the Doughnut Castle still stood proud, its stones untouched, its towers still watching over the city. This town didn't seem broken, only empty. Frosting, this city had been called once, but nothing about it held the slightest hint of frost; it was always hot, as Nightmare's furnaces never stopped burning. Nightmare was quick to turn this once cheerful place into an industrial complex. The transformation was not yet complete, but the skies were already beginning to be obscured by black smoke coming out of chimneys.

"Strange," Nozomi had said. "The Palmier Kingdom was destroyed, but the Doughnut Kingdom wasn't? I don't really understand."

"Perhaps they meant to make an example of the Palmier Kingdom?" That didn't seem like something that Nightmare would do, though. They rarely destroyed, and instead they enslaved. Still, Reika could not think of another reason.

From time to time they saw fairies in a hurry, but their faces were all obscured by Nightmare's masks. They were working somewhere nearby, enthralled by Nightmare. Whenever she saw one of Nightmare's victims, Nozomi's expression grew somber, angry. There was no forgiveness for this, they agreed.

They returned home before nightfall, knowing full well the terrors that might be lurking in the dark, hunting them. The Precure had underestimated their enemies, once, and because of that they were unprepared when their enemies came. Reika would never make that mistake again.

Every morning, before they ate together, Nozomi followed a short ritual: she'd always wish a good day to Coco, though the fairy was still deep in slumber, resting on another tiny bed they had taken from Frosting, and had no way of answering, or even listening. She still insisted on doing it. Then, she would try to reach out to the other Precure. Nozomi called the other Cures with her CureMo, a dozen times each morning, and a dozen times she was answered by silence.

Nozomi kept toying around with the device, but Reika knew it would be a waste of time, a waste of hope. Each time Nozomi pressed the button on the CureMo to call someone, stars sparkled in her eyes, but with each silent answer her hopes were dashed to pieces. It was taking its toll on her, Reika noticed. She'd start her task with a smile, and slowly her face would contort into a frown as she sighed with each failure. By the end of it, she just looked completely depleted as they sat together to eat.

It was no feast, quite the contrary: there were days they could eat some actual fresh food, when they found ripe fruits in the old forest. This was not one of those days, however. Last night they came home empty-handed, exhausted and soaked by the heavy rain that took them by surprise. All they had to eat this morning was the canned food they had taken from Frosting. Peas and corn and beans were their options, though it didn't actually matter as they all had no taste.

"This is disgusting," Nozomi said as her beans slowly slid off the can. Reika's corn didn't look much better, colored a sickly white. "I'm gonna throw up…"

"Can you not talk about vomit?" Reika asked. "It's already hard enough to swallow this stuff…"

They each had a single cup of water to wash down that grub, and they certainly needed it. Even now, water running down her throat was a pleasant feeling, one Reika could not afford to feel too often. Their food and water, shoddy as they were, had to last as long as possible, as the chance to find more only appeared very rarely.

When they were done eating, Reika opened the old icebox to check their supplies. This box was there when Reika first arrived, and she wondered how old this place could be. All around were termites, and there were holes on portions of the walls. At night, the cold wind blew through them, and though that didn't trouble Reika too much, Nozomi shivered as she slept. When it was too windy, the ceiling began to tremble, too. This shelter wouldn't last long.

They still had water for two more weeks, and food for just one. They were eating as little as they could, and hunger was a constant companion to Reika, but even so their provisions wouldn't last very long. On their first day together, Nozomi had helped Reika count, but quickly she revealed she had a very bad mind for numbers. And for many things, in fact. Reika was glad to have someone with her, but still, sometimes she caught herself wishing she could have a more dependable ally.

"How much do we have?" Nozomi asked, though clearly what she meant was, "how long do we have to eat this garbage?"

"Enough for us to survive a while longer, to figure out what to do," in truth, it had been a week already, they should have already have an idea of what to do, but whenever Reika tried to think of something, she was lost.

Above her the sky was sometimes too bright, sometimes so dark that it smothered Reika's hopes. All around her was a lifeless wasteland, nothing to see but Frosting, that dead, dreary city. She was beginning to think there was nothing they could do but just survive.

"Alright," she said, resigned, then sighed. Not a sigh of annoyance, but a long, soft sigh of sadness, that hung in the air.

"Is something bothering you?" A daft question, of course. What reason did they even have to not be bothered?

"It's kind of silly, childish, but… Well, whenever I have to eat that… That stuff, I think about how much I miss my mother's cooking. Ah, it was so good. She made these fluffy eggs that tasted like heaven… No, better. I just… I wish I could eat them again. Or anything, doesn't even have to be eggs. Doesn't even have to be food, I just… I just want to see her again."

"N-Nozomi, are you-"

"I'm alright, yeah," she wiped her tears away before they even started falling. It was as if she hadn't even felt any sadness; she had a smile again, and even laughed a little. Reika did not understand how someone could bury their pain so quickly, but somehow Nozomi could.

Reika opened the door, and stepped outside to witness the desolation. It never stopped hurting, she never got used to it. The world was not yet dead, but it was dying, agonizing, a pitiful thing. The wind brushed her skin with its stinging cold. Often the wind felt only like the world's last breath, saying a soft lament that Reika couldn't understand. Sometimes she even thought she heard something, but that was foolish. Gusts don't speak.

"What will we do today?" Nozomi asked, bright eyes looking deep into Reika's. "Searching for food, again?"

"Maybe," Reika wasn't sure. She couldn't think of much else to do. They needed food, but at the same time, just searching the woods for fruits that might not even be there would get them nowhere. "Do you have an idea?"

"Not really," she admitted. "Do you?"

The wind blew again, sending their hairs back, making tangles out of them. Reika looked around, silent, careful. There was plenty to see, but little of any value. Nightmare's tower was a dark dot, miles away. Someday, they would need to do something about it, but not now. There had to be something they could do, somewhere to go, something to show that the Precure were not defeated, that they were still fighting. Her eyes met Frosting, in the distance, smoke rising high into the sky, and then she smiled.

"Actually, I do."

* * *

><p>Maria had told her to wait here, and so Iona waited. She waited from dawn to dusk, day after day. She waited as the sun shone through the windows like a ray of fire, she waited as her roof seemed certain to collapse from the heavy rains and winds, droplets falling loud as bombs above her head. She waited as day after day her modest pantry became more and more empty, she waited as her water bottles depleted until there was nothing in them but a few drops, little more than watery whispers that did nothing to sate her thirst. You're doomed, was what they whispered, but Iona still waited for Maria, as her sister always kept her promises.<p>

And then one morning she woke up, belly hurting from starvation, throat dry, begging for water. She opened the window, looked outside, and saw grey skies that stifled her last hopes. The world was not truly without stars, Iona knew. They still had the sun. It burned without mercy, its heat everlasting, first making her sweat, then making it seem as if that very sweat was about to boil. Iona quickly learned to not stay outside very long, her reddened skin reminding her of that should she ever forget. Even so, even though it hurt, she still had this one last star to guide her.

But not today. Now even the sun escaped her grasp, avoided her gaze. The last star was hidden behind a curtain of grey, and then Iona knew that waiting was hopeless. Maria would not come back. She was gone. Maria, her dear sister… Cure Tender, her brightest star… But all the stars were gone, and Maria with them. It was time to leave, she knew that now. She opened the door, and left her family's house behind.

Iona travelled light; not by choice, she had very little left to take with her. Cards to tell the future, seashells to hear whispers from faraway places, black and white and red candles, and matches as well, to see tomorrow in the fires, and in the remains the blazes left behind. She only took them out of habit, however; they were all useless, they were all lies.

If they were true, after all, they would have told her of the coming disaster. They would have told her about her sister's disappearance.

She walked upon the corpse of the Blue Sky Kingdom, though now she saw neither blue skies nor a kingdom. She saw a ruined land, all in disarray, torn in half: a great, deep chasm had opened where there once was the great capital of the realm. It was all gone, now. On one side of the abyss stood the royal castle, still intact, its bright colors defying this world of grey. On the other side was the rest of the land, hamlet and smaller cities.

This had once been Iona's neighborhood, she recalled as she walked through ruins and scattered stone, splintered wood. It did not look like it, though. Oh, the houses were still there, all sorts of them: from the simple clay huts that the fairies inhabited to apartments where many humans lived, there was still much standing amidst the wreckage. Walls had collapsed, and huge holes had opened where there once had been ceilings, but the layout of the city was not too unfamiliar. It was only an empty husk of what had been there, however; all the people were gone.

Iona had checked every house, every old store, even the broken down places where no one should live, and did not find a single soul there. All she found were black mirrors, prisons to the people of the Blue Sky Kingdom. When she still had hopes, Iona tried to free their prisoners. They seemed asleep, sorrowful, angry, in pain, their bodies enveloped by crimson strands that constricted them. They looked almost like coffins, though Iona tried not to think too hard about it. _They are only asleep, I know it. They will wake up soon._

Of course, they never did. Iona waited as her sister had told her, but saw no sign of change on the mirrors. As she passed them by one more time, they were just the same as they had been one day before.

Labyrinth's beasts still roamed the land, but they were easy enough to avoid. They were dumb and slow, and their machinery whirred as they walked, so by the time they approached, Iona was already hidden in shadow, in empty buildings. The ground shook as they walked, but Iona didn't fear them anymore. There were worse things to fear, she had seen them when the Blue Sky Kingdom was attacked. She hadn't seen much else, for as soon as the kingdom started burning, Maria told her to hide, and Iona hid, and prayed for an end to the fighting.

Her prayers were answered, just not the way she hoped: the fighting was over, the Precure were crushed, the Blue Sky Kingdom had fallen. The night sky had gone dark.

By the time she was out of this city, all Iona could see was the broken world, wounded and scarred. Mountains rose where before there were none, rivers dried and forests died, or worse. Some still stood, she had seen, but she wished they hadn't; when she looked at them, she felt a haunting presence, as if evil things dwelled there now. Iona made sure to avoid them.

Soon the sky began to weep, the way Iona had wept once, when she thought it still mattered. A week of solitude and hopelessness taught her that tears did her no good, and so she stopped crying. Rain hit her face, soaking her hair, her clothes, but Iona simply kept walking. She had nowhere to go, but also no reason to stay still, to give up. Out of spite, if nothing else, Iona made her way through the empty world, through lands she almost recognized, but not quite. Was it south she was going, or west? She didn't know, and she didn't care. She just needed to find somewhere, anywhere, it didn't matter at all.

The sound of rain falling on the ground was almost relaxing, truth be told. Silence had been her only friend for the past days, always with her, whether or not she wanted it. At first she didn't, but she learned to welcome it, as it was certainly better than the Nakewameke walking around the streets, their footsteps shaking the earth, their engines droning through the night as Iona tried to sleep.

The smell of wet soil rose, and for a moment, the world felt normal, alive. This smell reminded Iona of childhood, of home, of Maria and her family, when they were all together. It had always rained a lot in the Blue Sky Kingdom, though never like this. When Iona looked back and thought of better times, she was always reminded of the soft rains that fell on the Blue Sky Kingdom.

Raindrops fell with murmurs of her mother telling her not to run outside in the drizzle, of Maria's silken-soft voice singing her lullabies, of her home's door opening as her father arrived. They fell on the ground, on the top of her head, all over her body, warmer than she expected. Those were all things Iona didn't want to remember, now that they were all lost, but the rain reminded her of them anyway.

Far away, she could hear the sound of raindrops crashing against the leaves of a forest's tallest trees. These woods had once been full of life, but now when Iona looked to them, she saw nothing but darkness. It was safer to stay away from them.

When at last the skies threatened to clear again, and spots of blue began to appear amidst the greys and whites of clouds, Iona couldn't see her home when she looked back anymore. She saw only emptiness, only a wasteland uninviting to life. She didn't see any of the Precures' enemies: it seemed as if they were content to simply destroy their surroundings, leaving barrens behind, scars on the world. There was nothing behind anymore, no choice but to keep moving forward, no choice but to reach a safe place, to find refuge.

But where? The Blue Sky Kingdom was gone, the dead stars showed her no paths to tread, and the silence in the wind mocked whatever hopes Iona had of finding someone. The world was empty now, and her survival was only fate's joke, destiny laughing at her as she struggled to stay alive, to find a Precure, to find other survivors. It was not a very funny joke.

Märchenland and the Trump Kingdom were the closest places she could go, Iona recalled, thinking back on her studies of geography. They were both too far away, however, hundreds of miles to the west before she reached Märchenland, and almost as many miles south to reach the Trump Kingdom. And they might be just as ruined as the Blue Sky Kingdom.

There was a place Maria had mentioned once, though. A great fortress of the Precure, their first refuge in times of danger, and their last. Phoenix Tower, it was called, where hope rises from ashes, taking flight to the darkest skies. Maria always spoke of it. Iona might have even thought that her sister might have found shelter there, if she didn't know that Maria would never leave her alone.

"Wait here," Tender had told her a moment before she rushed to battle. "I'll come back for you, I promise."

That was the first promise her sister ever broke. And the last, Iona feared. She had thought back on her sister's last words to her a hundred times and more. Maria's last words weren't a plea for Iona to be strong, they weren't an oath of love, they weren't even advice. They were only a broken promise.

Far away, atop a hill, a red tower rose. That might be it, the Phoenix Tower, Iona thought. But she only thought; she didn't dare hope, as those had already been crushed too many times. She had no use for it anymore.

* * *

><p>The tall buildings of Frosting were too close together, as if fighting one another for space. They were not like this before, Nozomi recalled. It was not like the fairies to build towers to touch the skies, to surmount the entire world. Their peaks almost brushed against one another, like blades clashing high above the rest of the world. Spiked, their apexes looked like they were about to poke holes into the clouds, into the heavens. Might be that was exactly Nightmare's intention.<p>

The storm washed the grime away, and a black water rushed through Frosting's streets. Dream and Beauty trudged through it, and though it was not too deep, it felt as if there was something in the water, heavy, thick. Disgusting, mostly: Nozomi could almost feel her breakfast boiling back up, which in turn reminded her of those disgusting beans she ate… The only reason she didn't throw up was because this water was abhorrent enough as is.

If Komachi were here, she'd be able to calm down Nozomi, to tell her she needn't feel sick, that it would be alright. Once, when Nozomi was ill, Komachi had even made her a sweet-smelling tea that made her nausea go away. But Nozomi had failed her, and she wasn't here. Nozomi's revulsion felt like a blow to the stomach, but now it was at herself that she was disgusted. She should not have left Komachi behind. Whatever happened to her, Nozomi should have been there by her side. If she died, then Nozomi should have died with her.

But she wasn't dead, Nozomi knew it. She couldn't be. Not Komachi. No, she couldn't be.

Repeating those words to herself, Nozomi followed Reika as she guided her through flooded streets, through cramped alleys where bags full of garbage followed the course of the water until they got stuck, blocking their way. They were easy enough to get past, though not at all pleasant, and their stench spread on the water, Nozomi almost missed the scent of smoke she felt at the Palmier Kingdom.

On her hands, close to her chest, she carried Coco. His breathing was soft, and his body was warm, a far cry from how he was when Nozomi found him. He should most likely not be here, but Nozomi couldn't bear to leave him alone in their small shelter, asleep. He was still the prince of the Palmier Kingdom, and their enemies would show no mercy if they found him.

Frosting wasn't too well-guarded, Dream understood that quickly. Only a handful of Kowaina patrolled the city's empty streets, and with no one to guide them, they were almost useless, mindless creatures more likely to get themselves destroyed than actually hurting Dream and Beauty. When they came running towards Nozomi, a step to the side was all it took to make them crash against building walls, their masks shattering into a dozen fragments of white.

Doughnut Castle was not too far away now, though the labyrinthine streets of Frosting certainly delayed Nozomi. Nightmare had blocked off entire sections of the city with huge walls of brick and metal all melded together, so they had to take the longer route through neighborhoods covered in dirt, where houses were left behind with their doors still open, broken, and inside all their valuables had been pillaged, nothing left behind but dust.

Nightmare didn't pay much thought to Frosting, as the Doughnut Castle's gates were completely unblocked. The Doughnut Kingdom had always been the smallest and poorest of the fairy countries, smaller than even the Sweets Kingdom and the Dessert Kingdom, which were always under attack, always falling into Nightmare's hands, then Labyrinth's, then the Dark King's, before being freed so that the cycle might begin anew.

She turned behind, and looked up again, and saw that the smog had covered the skies. Nozomi didn't know what Nightmare planned to do with all these factories, but there was no way it could be good. Still, if it meant they could enter the castle unseen, it might not be all bad.

The gardens were dead, its flowers wilted, its shrubs gone from green to grey. The rose bushes were the saddest of all, their flowers so brittle that their petals fell apart when Reika's fingers touched them. The hedges too had lost their color, and huge thorns extended from them like spears. The wet earth was choked by a carpet of spiky roots that made it all too easy to trip and fall. Reika's steps were too careful for that, but Nozomi stumbled time and time again, almost meeting the ground, but Beauty always held her before she could collapse. Dream gave her an embarrassed chuckle as thanks, hoping that Reika wouldn't be too annoyed by her.

It was so shameful: Beauty was so graceful, so careful, so smart, much more than Nozomi. She probably wasn't used to a good-for-nothing like Dream. Reika always spoke highly of her former companions, and Nozomi had no doubt that they were all very renowned Precure, talented and strong, intelligent and hard-working. They probably always took things seriously, and didn't goof around like Nozomi.

She sighed, and kept going, treading upon roots and wet leaves. The sound of thunder echoed, but Nozomi couldn't see lightning in the sky: the soot that poured out of the chimneys obscured it out.

"Careful, now," Reika said as she opened the door with a creak. In her hand, she held a long, thin shard of ice. A cold wind enveloped it, but Reika didn't even seem to notice, or care. It didn't seem like the sturdiest weapon, but Nozomi didn't question it.

Inside was a long corridor, so dark that Nozomi could not see an end to it. On the floor, the darkness gave the bright red carpet the color of dried blood. Empty sconces hung on the walls, but the rest of the corridor was desolate. Everything had been taken from this place. A blue light shone from Reika's blade, dimly, but just bright enough to show them the way.

Nozomi stepped as silently and carefully as she could, but the dust in the air dug deep inside her nostrils, and a sneeze did its best to escape. She locked it inside, but her whole face twitched from the effort.

"Reika," she whispered, "are you sure we can find someone here? If we're trapped, we-"

"I'm not sure," she admitted, "but it's better than staying at the old shack, don't you think? This castle is dusty, ruined, but at least it's not falling apart like that shed."

"True," she put a hand on the wall, feeling the dust that had gathered there. How could so much of it appear so quickly? It had been just a week. This could not be natural. "Still, it looks like everyone in Frosting has been enslaved by Nightmare."

"Could be," she said as she opened another door, leading to another empty room. They were so deserted that Nozomi couldn't even begin to imagine what they were before. "But think about it: if there are other Precure, they must be hidden as well. So of course we can't find them easily. We just have to keep searching."

"That makes sense."

They searched as well as they could, but after a while, all those identical barren rooms began to blend together. Some of them had windows, but only a faint light shone inside. Back at the castle's long corridor, they found no option but to follow it to its end, hidden in the dark.

Their footsteps were the only sounds that broke the silence, muffled slightly by the carpet. With little else to pay attention to, Nozomi focused on their steps. Reika trod lightly, while Nozomi's fell more heavily on the floor, and faster too. And then she noticed the weirdest thing.

More footsteps, neither hers nor Reika's.

"What are you doing here?" A voice cried out from behind them. Nozomi turned back in a heartbeat, and saw a spear pointed right at her face. No, not a spear. A huge paintbrush, held by a short girl,

"C-Calm down," Nozomi said, trying to look as harmless as she could. It didn't take much effort; with Coco on her arms, she wouldn't make much of a fighter.

"A-Are you-" The girl pointing the paintbrush at them almost let her weapon fall as her eyes widened in shock. "Precure?" Reika and Nozomi nodded together. The girl let out a loud sigh of relief that resounded in the empty halls.

"I'm Cure Beauty, and this is Cure Dream. Who would you be?"

"I was called Cure Pinceau, back when there were people to call me that. God, it feels like such a distant memory… Has it truly been only one week?"

"Yeah, it's really weird, isn't it? One week I was helping out the Palmier Kingdom, and now there's no trace of it…" No trace but Coco, that is, but even Nozomi knew she shouldn't mention his identity to whoever she crossed paths with. Rin had taught her not to be too quick to trust others with secrets. They aren't secrets if you tell everyone about it, Rin would say. Sometimes Nozomi still looked to her side on instinct, almost expecting Rouge to be next to her, as she always was, to give her advice, to tell her what she had done wrong. Instead she saw only Reika, and though she was a good, kind girl, it was Rin's warmth she longed for, not that gentle frost.

"Dream, Beauty," Pinceau repeated, as if making herself remember them. She spoke with a light accent that Nozomi couldn't recognize, though it felt as if she should. "I think it is nice to meet you, even though these are very dark times. You have a place to stay?"

"I-In a way," Reika said. She wasn't lying; it was a place, yes, just not a particularly comfortable or stable one.

"Would the two of you consider staying here? The Kowaina around here are roaming freely with no one to control them, so it's mostly safe if you are not a great idiot. And there is food to find here, and people in need of help. Everyone wears those odd masks, I don't know why. It controls them, I think?"

"Yeah, that seems like something Nightmare would do."

"Oh, so you have seen them before?" Her eyes shone with a familiar light. Hope, Nozomi recognized it at once. "Then I have need of your help, please."

She pointed at the darkness, at the end of the hallway. The three of them walked together, suddenly silent again. They stopped in front of a huge wooden door with handles of iron. It occupied almost the entirety of the wall.

"It's behind this door," she put a hand on the handle and began to open.

"What's in there?" Reika asked.

"This was the old throne room, where King Donuts would listen to his people's requests, meet his fellow rulers, from times to time, and discuss the future of the kingdom with other fairies. But that before… Well, you'll see it for yourselves."

The door opened ponderously, Pinceau struggling with its weight. Inside, it was difficult to see, the darkness too thick even for Beauty's light, but Pinceau just waved her brush around and the room slowly began to light up, revealing a throne of stone that looked as if it had been carved into the wall. Around it were many chairs, at least twenty. When Nozomi approached, however, she understood why Pinceau needed help.

On each chair was a fairy, face hidden by a sorrowful mask. Their limp bodies did not respond to Nozomi's touch, to her words, to anything. They just stood there, staring at nothing. And on the throne sat their king, lying there like a discarded doll. From the slits on the mask something red flowed, but when Nozomi looked into his eyes, there was nothing there but the blackness of despair.


	3. Pale Phoenix

A hundred blinded eyes surrounded Nozomi, and though the masked fairies could not see or think, she could not help but think that, somehow, their empty eyes were watching her, judging her. They looked like broken dolls, their faces hidden behind porcelain. They did not react to Nozomi's touch, and their bodies were cold; their fur and feathers seemed withered, somehow, as if they could turn to dust on Nozomi's fingers.

"This is…" She could not think of a word. She just stared into their masks. She looked deep into the king's eyes, hoping she'd see a glimmer of life, but it was in vain.

"When I found them they were like this," Pinceau said, her voice making echoes in the empty hall. Beyond the light she had made, there was little Nozomi could see. Pillars dressed in darkness, windows far away, revealing themselves only when they showed lightning's bright claws. "The door was locked from the outside, but it was easy to open, it did not even need a key. Nightmare was not really trying to hide them, to keep them away. I think. I do not understand how people like them think, and I do not want to."

"But you are right," Reika said, "it is very odd. I wonder…" She closed her eyes the way she often did when deep in thought.

"Yes?"

"Maybe it was not just foolish carelessness from them. I wonder, what if they truly thought that no Precure would come to this place?"

"They should have known we'd keep fighting! It's like they don't know us."

"No, that's not what I meant. What I meant was, what if they thought they had a reason to be certain that they'd be unopposed? That our enemies knew that their triumph would be so absolute that not a single Precure would survive, that once they would be victorious, they would have no reason to worry?"

"That's too confident of them," Nozomi folded her arms.

"No doubt. As such, they must have had a reason to believe it, to make them so sure that they would have nothing to fear from the Precure. If only we could know what…"

"Well, it doesn't matter right now, does it?" Nozomi asked. "We can find out later, but now, we have more important things to do," she showed Coco to Pinceau. He was breathing loudly, painfully. "This fairy… He needs help."

"I am not a caretaker, I fear," Pinceau said, putting a hand on Coco's forehead. "Oh, he is burning! What has happened to him?"

"I don't know," Nozomi said. He became like this the moment he entered this room; his body began to shake, and his head was hot as burning coals. Something about all those poor fairies was making him sick, Nozomi had no doubt. "He's been suffering since I found him at…" She supposed there was no harm in saying it. "He's Prince Coco of the Palmier Kingdom. I found him like that, in the ruins of his own castle."

"Poor thing… But a prince, you say?" Nozomi and Reika nodded. "Oh dear, of course he will not wake up. Neither will King Donuts, or any other monarch of the fairy kingdoms. They are linked to their land, to their people. When their realm is healthy, so are they, and they enjoy power, longevity, but as their land falls into ruination, so do the rulers fall into a deep, cursed sleep, as if awaiting for hope's light to shine again over their lands. At least, that is what I have heard."

Pinceau began to walk away, and Dream and Beauty followed. Nozomi was thankful shed did not have to stare at these fairies any longer. Even as she walked away, she thought of their eyes; they were all staring at her, but at the same time, they weren't. They were all empty, and no thoughts raced across their little heads. Nozomi hoped so, at least. She shuddered at the thought that they might still be conscious behind the masks.

"Hope's light, you said?" Reika asked when they stepped into the corridors again. "What would that be? There is no such thing as an actual embodiment of hope, so it has to be something else, right?"

"It's starlight," Nozomi said. It had to be. "That is the sacred pledge of the Precure, isn't it? To protect the stars in the sky, the lights of hope."

It was Komachi who had taught her that. Nozomi wished she could remember the rest of the tale, but all she could recall was that the world was dark, once, but it was the Precure who shared the gift of starlight with all the other people and fairies. Or something of the sort. Nozomi sighed a curse of her own forgetfulness.

"I too heard something of the sort," said Pinceau, guiding her companions to a closed door. Dream and Beauty had found it locked, too strong to break open, and so they ignored it. "When the stars fall into slumber, so will the world. King Donuts himself told me about it, but I must admit that I thought it was nothing but one of the many traditions that the fairies have, not something important. He said that we ought to watch over the Starlight Flame in that old forest."

"There's a Starlight Flame there?" Reika said, her voice suddenly loud. "I didn't even imagine…"

"The woods are very large," Pinceau explained as she took a small key and opened the door, "and very old, too. There is a temple there, where a Starlight Flame lies. King Donuts told me that it was well-guarded, but that even so we must be careful."

"Were it a normal attack, it would have been fine," Reika said plainly, almost as if thinking aloud, "but our enemies must have planned to attack all the Flames at the same time, to extinguish the stars all at once…"

"We already knew that," Nozomi grumbled. "Nothing else would explain all the stars going out."

Behind the door was a small, cramped room with mattresses laid carelessly on the floor. Dirtied blankets and sheets had been hurriedly tossed over them, though they were too small for the mattresses. Some were ripped at parts, and it was all too clear that Pinceau's shelter was just as precarious as their own.

"Here we are," she said. "It's not much, and it smells of dust, but you can stay with me for as long as you'd like."

"Thank you," Nozomi said as she gently put Coco down, and covered him with a blanket. Even asleep, he seemed to agonize.

"You said there was an old temple in the middle of the forest?" Reika suddenly asked. "Are you certain that there is a Starlight Flame there?"

"It is what King Donuts told me, yes. There is a dirt road leading to it, it is not difficult to find. Why do you ask?"

Reika looked at Nozomi with determination, and they nodded together.

"We'll be back soon, then, if all goes well."

"Hm?" Pinceau leaned her head and gave Reika a confused look. "Are you not going to sleep, or eat? There is enough for the three of us. It is not too tasty, but-"

"I'm afraid we have quite urgent business. Right, Nozomi?" Nozomi nodded, and looked at Coco, twisting and turning as he slept. She wondered what he dreamed of, if he even did.

"Please watch over him."

"I will," Pinceau blinked quickly, "but… Why are you leaving? It is dangerous outside, and dark."

"It _is _dark," Reika was quick to agree. "So we'll have to light a fire."

* * *

><p>The path made spirals around the hill, and it went up and down and up again. Iona stepped upon loose rock with caution but time and time again she almost fell. She took utmost care, but the stairs carved on the hill's sides were twisty, narrow, treacherous. Iona looked down, and saw the fall, the pointy rocks that awaited her below should she trip, and she finally understood why the Phoenix Tower was such a safe fortress. At the same time, she wondered how someone was ever able to get there. She looked up, and saw she had a long way to go. She sighed, and followed the trail.<p>

Rough rock scraped against Iona, leaving thin red lines on her pale skin. It didn't even hurt her. It almost tickled, really. Once she got used to the height and to the feel of notched stone scratching her, the journey was almost pleasant. The air felt so pure and clean, and the wind caressed her face gently, like a lover. The breezes kissed her, and for a moment, Iona closed her eyes, and let herself forget how broken the world was. The wind was just the same as it always had been.

Maria had made this ascent once, Iona thought, not as a Precure, but as an ordinary girl, just like herself. She had been chosen to become a Precure, but first she needed to reach the Phoenix Tower, to climb these steps beyond counting. When she thought back on it, Iona could remember it vividly.

A knock on the door. A messenger. A letter with a red rose seal. Maria's smile when she understood what it meant. Her family all gathered together to hear Maria say the words in the letter. Their parents were beaming with pride, but little Iona was the proudest of them all. Greatness suited Maria perfectly.

Iona looked up, and could not see an end to the climb. Years before, it was Maria who was looking up. She had not given up, so Iona couldn't either. Though her legs hurt and her body tired, she kept going. Just another step, and then another one, and another, and soon she'd be there. Maria didn't give up because she was exhausted. She never gave up, just as she never broke her promises. Until then…

A worthless thought. She just had to keep going. It was towards the future she had to look to, not to the past. Look up, not down. Look ahead, not behind. She repeated that to herself whenever those unwanted thoughts whispered in her ear. Iona didn't need that; the only sound she wanted was the wind.

On the narrowest points, she had to grasp firmly on the rock so that she wouldn't fall, and even then it was difficult. With each step, pebbles rolled down until they disappeared far below. It wasn't such a terrible fall, not truly. This hill was no more than a hundred meters high, a far cry from the great mountains in the south, their peaks wreathed by thick clouds.

Still, the fall was more than enough to kill a normal person, so Iona was as careful as she could be. The path was long and dangerous, but soon enough she could almost see the top of the hill, the tall Phoenix Tower revealing itself.

It did not look so large from far away, but as Iona approached it, its size took her breath away. The Phoenix Tower had been constructed many thousands of years ago, and had never been through any major changes, but it still looked distinctly modern, almost oddly so. If not for the great wings of stone at its top, it wouldn't look too out of place in the Blue Sky Kingdom's greatest cities.

The sun was setting, but still the Phoenix Tower cast a long shadow. On sunnier days, it must have been a really great shadow, one that obscured everything on the tower's surroundings.

Tired, Iona took slow steps towards the tower, even though she walked as fast as she could. It was already a great effort to keep standing, in truth. The fact that Iona had managed to make the climb without rest and without falling was already a miracle.

No, not a miracle, she told herself. There were no miracles anymore, not with the stars gone. She could not afford to believe in them, to wait for them. She had waited long enough. Now her fate was in her own hands, not in the omens of the stars.

Iona looked at the tower's door. It was tall and wide, almost overly so. A dozen people could walk in side by side, and her house's height was only a few inches greater than the door's. The door was thick metal, a light grey a few shades away from white. Maria had once told her that when sunlight reached it, it gleamed like a second sun for a brief moment. On the door were metallic roses and vines entwined around stars.

Though it looked so heavy, the door was very light to the touch. Iona gently pushed it, and it slid open effortlessly. Maria said that she had never forgotten what she saw when she first entered the Phoenix Tower: pristine halls where dozens of Precure walked and conversed, always smiling. When she saw it, she understood how powerful the resolve of the Precure really was, how great their order was, how safe the world was with them fighting for it. There was no place in the world half as wonderful as the Phoenix Tower, Maria had said.

Iona opened the door, and saw nothing but dust.

* * *

><p>A faint light was reflected on the surface of the waters, but everywhere else it was pitch black. On one hand, Reika held her frozen sword, and on the other her magical light sparkled, shining against the water. The night felt too warm, too damp, but Reika's frost brought her some comfort. She had always enjoyed the feeling of the cold against her skin, though she never quite understood why. It felt relaxing, somehow. On the harshest winter nights, Reika would often walk around the woods near her home, wearing only light clothes. She liked how the snow felt under her feet, on her hands, on her face. Winter's winds always made her calm.<p>

But the chill in the air she felt this night was nothing like that. It ran through the trees, rustling its leaves in an eerie melody. Something else was moving, somewhere, Reika could hear it, but what it was she could not see. When she looked around, the darkness was too thick to see much else but black.

Just as Pinceau had said, they had easily found a dirt path leading deep into the forest, but soon enough it branched into a hundred other paths, veins leading into the heart of the forest, with no way of knowing which were the fastests roads, or even which ones were right. After a while, all the trees began to look the same, and if Reika and Nozomi were walking in circles in the dark, they wouldn't even notice it.

Branches creaked underfoot, and though Reika would have preferred to walk in silence, there was no helping it; their colors blended in with the muddy soil, still wet from the rain. Reika's boots sunk deep into the mud, their white now a hardened brown crust. She didn't mind that; what she did mind, however, was how slow their steps were, how treacherous the soil was.

All around, Reika heard noises, but when she looked, she saw no birds, no animals that inhabit these woods. The only living things she could see other than herself and Nozomi were the trees and their rustling leaves, and spiders. So many spiders. Some skittered along the ground, others waited on their webs, and other were dangling from tree branches by a single thread.

Reika couldn't hear the sound of flowing water the way she could before, so for good or ill, they were at a different part of the forest. She could not know if it was the right one, but still she followed the path ahead of her. She couldn't dare to doubt it: hesitation could be worse than taking the wrong road. She went onward, and Nozomi followed.

It was odd, being followed like that, taking the lead. Reika had gotten so used to following that whenever Nozomi asked her for guidance and instructions, she was taken aback for a moment. Though there had never been any doubt about her competence and skill, Reika had always been a follower, never a leader. She left that role to Miyuki, to Moonlight, to Mirage. They had the charisma needed to lead the Precure, not Reika. But now Nozomi looked to her for advice, and it felt… Reika could not tell how it felt. It wasn't bad, but it was something she had never felt before.

Reika looked up, but she couldn't see the sky; the thick canopy hid it completely, a curtain of dark green. Amidst the leaves and the branches, the sticky white of cobwebs stirred. Reika held her sword tight; something was wrong, she could feel it. When she turned to face Nozomi, she too had worry stamped on her face. This forest was sacred, the hiding place of a Starlight Flame. It should not be this eerie. Reika began to wonder if it was such a good idea to come at night, but then again, in the depths of the forest, it was too dark even by day.

On the corner of her eye, Reika saw something scrabbling on the tree bark, but when she looked, it was gone. And that terrible song still filled the air, now joined by a thousand tiny legs skittering along atop fallen leaves and branches. Reika's hand was shaking. Why? She had faced worse, she thought as she remembered fighting alongside Moonlight. She shook off that memory, too painful. Instead she remembered Miyuki, Akane, Yayoi and Nao, a thought far more comforting. The world felt empty without them; she still wasn't used to their absence, and sometimes Reika looked to her side, almost as if expecting one of her friends to be there, but of course, they never were.

Instead it was Nozomi who was by her side, this girl she barely knew. She was nice enough, and determined, certainly a true Precure, but even so Reika could not help but see her as a stranger. She wondered if Nozomi thought the same; most likely not, as she always had a smile to show Reika. That made her feel a sting of guilt, though she knew she should not: that was just the way she was, and there was nothing wrong with it.

The wind soughed as she was deep in thought, and something snapped far away, falling on the ground. A branch, no doubt, and Reika dismissed it for a moment, but then she heard another, and another, and one more. The wind grew silent, and somehow the darkness seemed thicker. Though silent, a breeze was still blowing, slow, brushing against her skin, a cold like she had never felt before. It was not the cold of winter, nor the cold of a pleasant and calm night, but something else entirely, something terrible. Reika wished that her friends could be with her; she wouldn't be so afraid if they were.

She scanned her surroundings one more time, breathing slowly. All around were eyes gleaming in the dark, watching, and Reika could see the webs stirring, hear the spiders skittering, rushing, weaving. And amidst the trees, something bigger walked, something almost human, but not quite.

"Nozomi," she said between teeth, "there's something- No, someone coming."

* * *

><p>Iona tried to reach out to someone in the Phoenix Tower, but her voice made echoes in the empty hall, echoes unanswered, so for a moment she thought she was alone. She only realized she was wrong when she looked down, and saw footprints on the dusty floor that were not her own. Someone was there as well. Maria, she thought, she hoped, she prayed, though in her heart she knew it could not be her sister.<p>

Though dusty, desolate and dark, the Phoenix Tower was unbroken. Its statues still stood, old marble in the shape of Cures of old. Closer to the entrance, they were smaller, the size of Iona, but as she approached the center of the tower and its halls widened while its ceilings rose, they became taller. Cure Ange was more than twice her size, but even she was dwarfed by the statues of Cures Priestess, Empress and Magician, the three pillars that held the tower up. Around them was a spiral staircase leading up, and Iona ascended.

On the walls were gravures of the oldest legends of the Pretty Cure, and of their greatest deeds. Sometimes it was hard to tell truth and myth apart: the Precure had existed for so long that their earliest history was obscured by time's mists. Time and time again, it was said, the Precure fought, they rose, they fell, they triumphed, and they lost. Each new era brought challenges and disasters, but the Phoenix Tower always stood. Iona remembered Maria telling her that there were many times when the skies were almost devoid of light, the stars devoured by the darkness, but even then the Phoenix Tower had not fallen. Just like now, Iona thought as she rose. The Phoenix Tower hasn't fallen yet.

Iona looked up, and far above, she could see the statues' raised hands touch the ceiling, so high that to Iona it seemed as distant as the sky. On the ceiling's stone was the ornate engraving of a phoenix, its wings a light grey. Odd, Maria had said that the phoenix was painted a bright red, and its flames seemed alive, dancing whenever it was touched by the light that shone through the tower's stained glass windows.

But now the sun was setting, and a starless black smothered the night sky. A light orange still shone through the windows, but with every moment it became darker. Night was coming again, unforgiving as always.

On the sides of the stairs were many closed doors, leading to the countless rooms and offices of the Phoenix Tower, but Iona only followed the footsteps left on the dust. She went up and up and up until she could see Cure Priestess' face in the marble, and her golden crown. Her face was kind, but firm.

At the very top of the tower, when Iona could almost touch the phoenix in the ceiling, the footsteps led to an open door. Iona stepped inside, and found a long corridor with many more doors. Maria had told her that the tower was enormous, but even so Iona was astonished. Somehow, she was hoping again. Hope, that hideous thing that nourished her as she waited for her sister at her broken home. She knew it could not be Maria who left these footprints behind, but even so Iona prayed that it was. She was wrong.

Iona found her at the room past the last door, standing still at the balcony, watching the setting sun and the black curtains falling over the pink, orange and grey skies. In the dark, even the clouds were hard to see, but the girl watched intently.

She was clad in a black vest and a skirt colored white and red, but it was her hair that caught Iona's attention. Its red was so light that it might as well be pink, a color that seemed familiar to Iona, as if she had seen this girl before. Before she could tell who it was, whoever, the girl turned back, eyes huge with shock.

"I-Iona…" She said, though Iona could not yet remember her. "I could not even imagine that I would meet you here."

"You know who I am?"

"I have seen you, once, but have often heard of you. From your sister."

"You knew Maria?!" Iona yelled all of a sudden, and almost ran towards the girl. Embarrassed, she took a step back, but her heart was racing.

"She was my partner," she said. _Was_, Iona couldn't help but notice, and felt something tighten in her heart. "Maybe she spoke of me before. I'm Cure Mirage."

"S-She has," Iona said, but that didn't matter. What mattered was Maria. "You said-"

"Yes," Mirage said with sadness. "Maria was my partner. Not anymore. I don't know how to tell you, how to mak-"

"Just tell me!" She didn't mean to scream, but she did.

"Well, I wish I could tell you Maria is dead. That would have been a merciful fate compared to what happened to her," every word she spoke was like a dagger piercing through Iona's chest. She clenched her fists with all her strength, her own nails cutting her palms. "Maria was trapped in a mirror when the Blue Sky Kingdom fell. She lives, but trapped in a nightmare without end."

Her bare knees hit the floor hard, and a hundred words were stuck on her throat, choking the life from her. When Iona managed to speak, no words came from her mouth, only a horrid noise, a wailing barely human. She thought of her sister, trapped in the endless darkness, and felt a pain that she had never known before. It made her want to dig a hole in her chest with her own fingers and tear her heart to pieces. She might very well have done it if Mirage had not knelt in front of her and held her close.

"I'm sorry, Iona. I know the pain I felt is nothing compared to yours, but I too loved your sister, and I know that losing her is one of the worst things that could have happened to the Precure. Wherever she went, she brought happiness. The world is a little darker without her to light our way."

What world? There was no world without Maria, no world for Iona anymore. Everything was gone, and everyone. All that was left was this empty, dusty tower, its statues of Cures that died thousands of years before, and its dead, pale phoenix. Iona got up, not on her own strength, but risen by Mirage, who took her by the arms and pulled her up.

"I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you this. It is almost as painful as having to actually witness it… And I also must beg your forgiveness." What for?, Iona almost asked, but still the words were stuck and she only cried. "She saved me. I was the one who was about to be trapped in a mirror by our enemies, but she sacrificed herself to save me. She tossed me against the ground and took a blow that was meant for me. She looked back and smiled, asked me for one last favor, and then she was gone. I'm sorry, Iona. I truly am. I'm sorry that I lived while your sister had to be lost."

Something akin to laughter came from Iona's mouth. It wasn't laughter, not truly, but if it didn't hurt so much, it would have almost been funny. Of course Tender had fallen because she sacrificed herself for someone. She was always like that, always taking the place of others in painful things, so that they wouldn't have to suffer. Iona should have expected her to do it to the end.

"Iona," Mirage said gently, trying to get her attention. She put something on her hand. "This is not a good time, I know, but I promised your sister… I promised her I'd give you this."

She recognized it at once. It was Maria's Pretty Change Mirror. Iona remembered it being colorful, beautiful, but now its colors were dull, and even its mirror seemed dirtied. Iona stared at it, hoping to see Maria, but all she saw was her own reflection, her own face red from crying.

"I do not mean to tell you what you should or what you shouldn't do, but your sister wanted you to have it, she wanted you to become a Precure in her place. She knew that even with her gone, the world would still be in danger, and she always said that you had a strong, beautiful heart. So I'll give it to you, and leave the choice to you. Please consider it, Iona," Mirage gently put a hand on her cheek. "You look so much like her, you know. If you became a Precure like your sister wanted, it would be as if she was still alive, as if she rose from the ashes. That way she would never be forgotten."

She'll never be forgotten anyway, I'll remember her every morning when I wake up and every night when I try to sleep, she wanted to say, but instead she turned to look outside. She could see so much of the world, but it was all obscured by the night that had just fallen, leaving its dark mark in the sky. To become a Precure… Was that the right thing to do, was that her fate? For lack of stars to tell her fortune, she searched for an answer within her heart, but there she found only stone.


	4. Hearts Ablaze

Reika watched as darkness gathered around her and Nozomi, and spiders beyond count skittered along, surrounding them. No ordinary spider should be that big: they almost reached her ankle, and there were so many of them. Something tickled at her shoulder; a web. She looked above, and strands of sticky white were reaching out to them. In the dark, someone was giggling.

"I know that laughter," Nozomi said; her voice made the little critters stir, as if about to strike. Reika kept her blade ready to defend herself.

"Who comes there?" Reika asked, pointing her blade at the dark. There was no point in silence, in hiding, not anymore, no choice but to fight.

"I should be the one asking that," the voice said, distinctly a woman's. "Depending on who you are, I might get a better bonus… It's been a real pain to track you, to set a trap for you flies, so it better be worth it."

"I am Cure Beauty," she said, the tip of her sword aiming at the woman. She could not show fear. She had faced worst. She had faced Dune at Moonlight's side… So why was she so afraid?

"I don't have to introduce myself, Arachnea," Nozomi had no weapons but her own hands, but for most Cures, that was more than enough. "After all the times you lost, you should have learned that you don't stand a chance."

"When you are with your friends," the woman said with a scathing voice, "but not when you are alone."

"I am not alone," she said, but Reika knew that she might as well be. It was not a simple, quick thing, for two Precure to learn to fight together, to understand one another, to join their strengths. Reika had never seen Nozomi fight, but from the way she had seen her act, Reika didn't have much faith in her ally. But still, who else did she have? She gave Nozomi a nod, and they approached their enemy.

A strand lashed against her, a white blur cutting the air like a razor, whipping her face, leaving a thin red line on her cheek. Screaming, Reika lunged against Arachnea, frozen edge pointed at her, but as she passed between the trees, something grasped her ankle, and she fell with her face on the ground, atop the skittering spiders. From there she could see the webs between the trees, traps to bring down rushing enemies. Behind her, she heard Nozomi trip as well, screaming as she fell.

A hundred tiny eyes shone as the spiders closed in on her, fangs about to strike. Beauty jumped up, but they clung to her body. She could feel their countless tiny legs against her bare skin. It was easy enough to toss them away against the ground, but their bites still stang as they pierced her skin. And all around, she heard laughter, but could not tell where it came from.

"Behind!" Nozomi yelled with urgency, still struggling to rise. On instinct, Reika put her sword behind her without looking, and something shattered its ice. Arachnea's hand. No, not her hand, Reika noticed, they looked more like the legs of a spider, but much harder, as tough as steel, coming out of her back.

Reika tossed her broken sword aside, and called forth another one. From her palm sprouted a long shard of ice, misshapen and ugly, but sharp. Quickly she thrust the icicle against Arachnea, but not quickly enough; with one of her legs, she blocked Beauty's strike, cracking her sword.

Taking steps back, Reika jumped from one side to the other to avoid Arachnea's blows, but they were too many, too fast, and they hit harder than rocks, pummeling Reika against thick tree trunks.

Reika could her Nozomi grunting, but could not afford to look at her; her eyes were set on Arachnea, her foot coming down on her face with great force. That proved to be a mistake, however; Reika lifted her hand and grabbed Arachnea's ankle, pulling her down. She fell down awkwardly, spider legs trying to stab Reika as she collapsed, but they missed, and Arachnea just fell on Beauty, her leg pierced by the blade that Reika held. On the wound, droplets of water mixed with the blood. Arachnea shouted in pain, trying to break free, but quickly she was pinned down to the muddy soil as more frozen blades fell on her, piercing through her sleeves.

Behind her, Reika saw Nozomi's body almost completely covered in spiders, biting her with ferocity that no normal spider would ever show. She helped Nozomi pull them from her body, tossing them on the ground. They ran away, disappearing in the dark, amidst their webs.

"That's it?" Reika said, taking a deep breath. They had been lucky; one of the first things a Cure learned was how dangerous it was to fight in such close quarters, caught by surprise by the enemy.

"No," Nozomi pointed up. Reika looked, and saw an elaborate web, patterns connecting the tops of the trees. They were huge, far larger than webs an ordinary spider could weave, but Reika knew it was no ordinary spider that had made this.

She turned to face Arachnea, but a dozen white strands had reached down to embrace her, as if they had a will of their own. Like hands they tore out the blades keeping Arachnea stuck, and they pulled her up. She wasn't laughing anymore, only groaning.

"Keep your eyes open," Nozomi said, as if Reika did not know already. "She'll strike from ab-"

Before she could finish her word, strands fell down to wrap themselves around her neck, like a noose, and her arms too. Reika conjured another sword to try and cut her free, but she was caught as well. The web ropes began to lift her, the noose choking off her screams. Desperately she waved her sword around, trying to strike against the web, but she could barely move her arms. The wind hit her face, and her blade fell from her clumsy hand. All around her, the world was a blur.

When they stopped rising, Reika could see the top of the trees, and their needles scratched at her face. She could not see much more; whether because of the darkness or because her consciousness was fading fast as she hanged, she could not tell. Holding the nooses, Arachnea only smiled cruelly.

Right next to her, Reika could just barely see Nozomi's body jerking, arms flailing as she tried to free herself, in vain. The cold embraced Reika, its frigid fingers caressing her cheeks, but this was not a cold she could enjoy. She was almost out of time, and had to think of something.

Ice enveloped her arms, her neck, and she begged for her plan to work. Though she felt cold, the night was warm and damp just a moment before. Just as it formed, the ice began to melt, water running down her arms, making them just slippery enough to free themselves from her bonds. As soon as she could move them again, she tore apart the web around her neck, and with a quick swing of an ice shard, freed Nozomi as well.

The webs they stood on was uncertain terrain, difficult to balance upon, but Arachnea had no trouble with it; in a moment she was in front of Beauty and Dream, fists hitting the two of them in the face. Dizzy, Beauty stumbled backwards, stepping on nothing, falling, but Nozomi's hand caught her by the wrist, slippery with sweat, but still holding firmly.

Arachnea's onslaught was brutal and relentless, and she moved along her webs with grace and speed, avoiding Reika's strikes, but even so she had trouble fighting the two girls at the same time, and from time to time, one of Dream's blows managed to find an opening. Arachnea was growing tired, though the Precure were exhausted as well. It was only a matter of who would falter first.

The spider's nails raked Nozomi's face, but she got too close, and got a violent punch in the stomach in return, taking the air out of her. Nozomi's next hit took her in the face, causing her to stumble, and then, all it took was a sharp shove from Reika to take her to the ground, far below the webs. It was difficult to say for sure, without any light, but to Reika it seemed like she wasn't moving anymore. It was over now, it had to be.

The webs began to wither and snap, like thin fabric being pulled apart, so Reika hugged the bark of a tree. Nozomi jumped down, but curious, Reika climbed until she was higher than the highest point of the trees. From there, she could see a sea of dark greens bathed in twilight, their colors almost fading into black. But far away, she could see it; a large glade, with a building in its center. Reika could not see much more, but she had no doubt that it was the temple that Pinceau had mentioned. Their path now was clear.

She climbed down as fast as she could, until she reached Nozomi again. She was bloodied and bruised, but kept standing with a fierce determination. In front of her was Arachnea, still trying to get up after her fall.

Laughing despite her pain, the woman took out a black mask, and put it close to her face. Reika did not understand it, but Nozomi's eyes widened and, yelling, she rushed against Arachnea and ripped the mask from her hands, before breaking it in two pieces.

"You treacherous-"

"You can't blame me for fighting until the end," Arachnea said, "even when it seems like I've been defeated. After all, you are doing the same, no? It's over for the Precures, for your people and for the fairies you love so much. Your time has passed, but you are still fighting, still seeking a Starlight Flame. Oh, yes, I know, why else would you be here?"

"Is that why it was unguarded?" Reika asked. "So that you could lure any remaining Precure, who would, no doubt, try to light the Starlight Flames?"

"Like a spider to a fly," she smiled, and licked her lips.

"You thought we would be harmless prey?"

"Never harmless," she said. "You don't go far in Nightmare if you underestimate the Precure. I'd much rather be overseeing the conquered lands, but eliminating the Precure is a job that someone has to do."

"Well, that someone wasn't you," Nozomi said, extending her palm towards Arachnea. Why, Reika asked herself, but then she knew. "Dream Att-"

"No!" Reika said, and grabbed Dream's arm. "What are you doing?"

"Destroying her," Nozomi said. Destroy. An easy word for _kill_, that almost made you forget what it meant. "She's an enemy. She's a Nightmare."

"This is not what we do," Reika insisted. "All hearts can be saved. When you became a Precure and pledged your life to the Red Rose, you understood that, didn't you? All hearts, not just the ones you care about."

"I… Reika, you can't believe this woman can be redeemed, that there is any good in her heart. We can't just spare her life."

"Yes, you can," Arachnea said before Nozomi glared at her.

"We must. It is our duty as Precure," Reika said. She knew very well that if she had been as hasty at passing judgment as Nozomi was, she would have slain the generals of the Bad End Kingdom, even though they were completely undeserving of such a fate. It was not right to raise the blade but refuse to hear someone's story.

"Fine," she frowned. "It's just… No, I'm not going to argue. I'm not good at arguing. Maybe you're right and I'm just stupid. Will we take her prisoner?"

"I'm not _that _trusting," Reika said. "If we take her with us, she could stab us in the back easily, and if we take her to the Doughnut Kingdom, then she could spy on it, and we certainly don't need that."

"You can't mean to…" Reika expected it would be Nozomi who would object, but it was Arachnea who rose her voice.

"Just return to Nightmare, and count yourself lucky for the mercy you have been granted."

"It's not mercy," Arachnea said, "only a delayed death. Kawarino, my boss, he has no patience for failure, he will hurt me if I return empty-handed."

"Not our problem," Nozomi shrugged. "When you chose to work with Nightmare, you should have expected this."

"Wait," Reika said as suddenly a thought sprouted in her head. "Take this."

She closed her eyes, and reached inside her heart for magic she had not used in a long time, since… Since Nao and the others weren't with her anymore. She felt a sudden weight on her hands as her Princess Candle appeared.

"Will this suffice as proof for this Kawarino person you mentioned?"

"U-Undeniably," Arachnea said, taking the Princess Candle from Reika and keeping it close to her chest. She was crying, Reika noticed. "He put a large reward on Beauty's head, and once he takes it to Eternal for appraisal, my life will be spared. Thank you," she said in the bitter tones of someone who had never thanked anyone before. "May I ask you one thing, though? Are you… Are you one of ours?"

"What do you mean?"

"A Precure who betrayed your own to join us, like Rosetta, like Sunshine. Is this why you are helping me?"

"No," Reika said. She found it hard to believe that a Cure would ever willingly join Nightmare or any of their enemies. There had to be another reason.

"One of yours…" Nozomi said with disdain. "We would never be on your side, no matter the reason."

"You don't have to be so angry. I was just asking. Besides, many Cures who said they would always follow the path of the stars, when faced with the choice of joining us or dying, chose to follow us. Even ones who were just as defiant as you are now."

"Such as?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she said, wary.

"Tell me anyways."

"Cure Aqua."

"You are right," Nozomi's voice was completely free of doubt, "I don't believe you at all."

"It is the truth," Arachnea was going to say more, but Nozomi took a step towards her, and Reika knew that she would not let this woman keep badmouthing her friend, so she had better do something.

"Run along, now," Reika said, and Arachnea obeyed, limping away from them, followed by her spiders. When she was gone, Nozomi turned to Reika, frowning.

"Why did you do that? It's one thing to not kill her, but to actually help her like that…"

"Oh, it wasn't helping her," Reika said with a tiny smile. "I have no use for my Princess Candle without my companions, and if Arachnea takes it to Nightmare as proof of my death, they will have no reason to doubt it, and will believe that I was indeed killed."

"Oh," Nozomi said, and seemed deep in thought for a second. "Reika, that's brilliant! If they think they won't have to worry about you, they'll keep their guard down."

"Exactly. Now let's hurry. We still have a Starlight Flame to find, and I know where we have to go."

And after that, it was easy enough to find the right path to the old temple. The forest was still too warm, its trees' branches still hit her face, and her feet still sunk deep in the mud, but after what they had just been through, that did not bother Reika at all. Her body still hurt from Arachnea's assault, so even just walking without interruptions was a welcome relief.

From the outside, the temple was not impressive at all; it seemed quite small, and its once-white walls of marble were now green with moss. Even its door was just an ordinary one made of plain wood, and it was stuck, so Nozomi and Reika had to break it open so that they could step inside.

As they entered, the torches lit themselves with white fire that brought no warmth. Where the forest had been unpleasantly hot and cramped, the temple seemed far too cold and empty. There were some altars scattered around, and doors that led to rooms of meditation, but what caught Reika's attention were the engravings on the walls.

Figures had been carved into the marble, and it did not take long for Reika to recognize them. It was Cure Empress lighting a Starlight Flame; on her heart and hand were fires, and on the next engraving, the Starlight Flame was burning, and stars above it where shining. On the wall on the opposite side of the room, it was Cure Priestess that she saw, surrounded by fairies and humans, all of them with crowns upon their heads, but it was Priestess' crown that shone brightest. The Eternal Golden Crown, Reika knew, though not really so eternal as it had been lost long ago.

"This place must be really old," she said to Nozomi, pointing at the inscriptions. "That art style is ancient, dating from millennia ago."

"That would explain why this temple seems so poorly-kept" Nozomi complained. "You'd think the Doughnut Kingdom would take better care of it, though…"

"There's no helping it. It's the fate of all things. The past is always forgotten as we walk towards the future. It's sad, but such is life."

Nozomi regarded Cure Empress with curiosity. Of the three cures who had founded the Order of the Red Rose, she was the only one whose life had not been extensively recorded by historians. Magician led the Cures of Phoenix Tower and defeated their enemies, while Priestess reigned as queen of the old Precure Dominion for her entire life, but, despite her name, Empress never ruled, and instead, when the Starlight Flames were lit, she simply disappeared, never to be seen again.

"Do you think they were afraid?" Nozomi asked all of a sudden.

"I don't know," Reika said. She could not even imagine those legendary Cures being afraid of anything. Even so, they were girls just like Reika and Nozomi, so maybe they too could know fear. "Maybe."

"Yeah," she nodded. "It's alright for a Precure to be afraid, isn't it? We are always taught about bravery, about protecting the weak, but no one ever taught me what to do when the world seems engulfed by sadness, and enemies surround us while our friends are all gone. Was it like this for Empress too, for Priestess, for Magician?"

"More or less," Reika said. "There were other Cures while they lived, but they were scattered, all alone, so it was up to the three of them to bring light to the world. They must have been afraid too, but they braved on."

"Then we must do the same," Nozomi said. "Let's go."

Reika grabbed a torch from the wall. The white fire was cold, unpleasantly so. Still, she knew she did not have to fear it. Starfire could not hurt the Precure, but was unbearably hot to all others. It was an undying fire that began to burn when a Precure approached it, so that if there was ever the need, she could light a Starlight Flame.

The Flame was easy enough to find; there were not many rooms in the temple, and the largest door led directly to a round chamber with a large brazier in its center. There was a great opening in the ceiling, revealing the sky. Once, Reika would have been able to see a thousand stars if she looked up. Now there was nothing.

"It's not very impressive," Nozomi said, and Reika agreed. The brazier seemed to be ordinary metal, almost rusted, in truth. Still, there was no doubt that it was it.

Reika approached her torch to the brazier, and the slightest touch was enough to ignite it. Quickly the fires began to dance around, rising higher and higher as if reaching for the night sky. It burned white, then blue, then orange, its colors ever shifting, a rainbow of fire. Reika sighed in relief, and looked up to the sky, waiting for stars.

* * *

><p>Iona looked to the outside world through the window, but a curtain of darkness covered the landscape. Not that there was anything to see, anyways. The world was just as empty as it was when the sun shone above it. Somehow, that didn't bother Iona anymore. She found tranquility in the frozen world, unchanging, forever deprived of stars. It felt like her heart, now that Maria was gone.<p>

She smiled, despite everything, a smile that mocked herself. What a melodramatic thought; if Maria were to know it, she'd say that Iona was being silly, and she would gently wipe her tears away with a warm finger.

But Iona had to wipe her own tears, and her runny nose too. She looked more like a sickly girl than someone in mourning. Her eyes felt heavy, and her body could drop to the floor at any moment, but she refused to go to bed. She felt as if she had to keep thinking about her sister. Maria, Maria, she said the name to herself, voice muffled by her sobs, she whispered it to the wind so that maybe it would take her sister's name to a faraway place, so that maybe someone would hear it, so that Maria could not be forgotten. Iona wanted to scream to the world about Maria, about how wonderful she was, about how she was a star down on earth, she wanted everyone to know what they had lost. Instead she swallowed her words and watched as her tears fell into the darkness, and wondered how long it would take for them to splash against the rocky ground.

Cure Mirage had been kind enough to give Iona one of the best quarters in the Phoenix Tower; a large, spacious room with a big and comfortable bed, a bathroom all her own, a bookshelf filled with well-organized volumes of Precure lore, tales and history. Maybe one day Iona would have found them interesting, but now, all their titles blended together. Iona had no love for the Precure and their history, not anymore: it was because of the Precure that the stars had died. Were it not for that stupid, spoiled Cure Princess, the night sky wouldn't be so dark, and Maria would still be smiling…

In her anger, Iona tossed the books against the floor, breathing heavily. It was not fair. It should not be like this. It was not Maria's fault, but Hime's… That foolish princess had doomed not only herself, or even just the Blue Sky Kingdom, but the entire world, and everyone who lived in it. Her heart burned as she thought of everything that had been lost because of that child's selfishness. If there was any justice in the world, Hime would be dead by now, trapped eternally in the Garden of Thorns that awaited the sinful, traitorous Cures who chose the path of darkness over the light of the stars.

Of course, Iona didn't actually believe that. There was no justice in the world, that much was clear, else Maria would be by her side now. Most likely, Hime still lived blissfully, while her kingdom was in ruins, not even caring, not even aware that everything was her fault.

"Iona," it was Mirage's voice, coming from behind her, distant, in the corridor. She said something that Iona could not understand, and approached her.

"It'll be like this forever, won't it?"

"Hm? The sky, you mean?" Iona nodded. "I can't say for sure. Perhaps if the Starlight Flames were to burn again, the stars would return, but who would light them? They have all been extinguished, and are now in enemy lands. Right now, it would be madness to try to light them."

"Right now? Then, later…"

"Later, maybe," she said, sitting on Iona's bed. "As a leader of the Precure, I know I am meant to embrace hope like a lover, to always believe in a bright future. However…"

"You don't actually believe we can change the future?"

"I don't know what I believe in," she sighed. "We the Precure have been through many hardships, but none quite like this. Our future truly seems bleaker than it ever did, and you, more than anyone else, can understand that changing the future is a difficult endeavor, if possible at all."

Iona looked at her cards, candles and seashells left scattered on a table. She had not yet asked them about what was to come. She did not want to know. Whatever hope they could give was hollow, and if the fortune they told was despair, well, Iona already had enough of it. She found it hard to care.

"The Starlight Flames, the Precures' greatest creation, but at the same time, our greatest tragedy," Mirage said with eyes closed, speaking more to herself than to Iona. "We gave this world a million stars, and we have grown used to their light, and we even use them to guide us, but now that they are gone, we can't even begin to imagine how to walk in the darkness. We never had to learn. The stars were always shining above us, keeping us safe, even in the darkest of nights, and we thought they would always be there."

"What did you mean," Iona asked, suddenly curious, "we gave this world a million stars?" Iona had never heard about this.

"It is a long story," she said, "and I'm afraid I'm in no mood for long stories right now. My head hurts, and I must rest, but I cannot, as refugees are coming to the tower now, and I must greet them, guide them. Cures who survived the Death of the Stars, who knew that the Phoenix Tower was their best hope for sanctuary. I'll tell you the story another time, Iona. Or you could read a book, you know. They are good for more than just being tossed around when you're angry."

The fire that a moment ago was in her heart now rose to her face, not as anger but as a blush of shame. She didn't mean to do that, Iona was always careful with her things, so this was unlike her. She picked up the fallen tomes, and put them back in place, though the shelf did not look nearly as tidy as it had been before.

"Well, I'll go see if there are any other Cures in need of help," Mirage sighed again. It was something she did constantly, as if she somehow was always tired. "It seems that other than me, all the Cures who were leaders and generals of the Red Rose are gone, so I guess it falls on me to lead the remnants to the best of my ability."

The Red Rose… Iona couldn't help but feel frustrated whenever she heard these terms and tales she did not understand well, but somehow was expected to.

"Do you want help?" Iona offered, wanting to be useful. She had already disappointed Mirage by saying no to her request for her to become a Precure, so she felt guilty for staying at the Tower despite not being a Cure, despite not being any help at all.

"I'll accept it," she said. "If you could just keep track of the Cures that are arriving, I'd be very thankful. Even at a time like this, it would be best if we tried to be at least a little bit organized."

Iona agreed, and followed Mirage downstairs. The spiral staircase still seemed too long for Iona, and she would have much preferred a normal one. The first time she ascended and saw the statues of the great Cures, it was certainly impressive, but now, it only made it a chore to go anywhere.

The Phoenix Tower was a wonder of anachronism: its corridors were like those of an ancient castle, lit by torchlight and candelabra, with floor and walls of stone, but Iona's bedroom was very similar to the one she had when she still had a home. Instead of torches or candles, it was a light bulb that kept the darkness away, and she even had a television, though of course there was no use for it, and nothing to watch. Everywhere she looked, it was clear to Iona that the tower had been build ages before, but its inhabitants kept adding to it.

Half a dozen Cures were gathered together at the entrance of the tower. Some were chatting, others looking at the statues, and one girl, anxiety stamped on her face, walked in circles, and looked about to cry.

To make herself useful, Iona began asking their names, where they came from, if they had anything useful to share. They all talked at once, and though Iona tried to control them, it took a stern yell from Mirage for them to speak one at a time.

"I am Cure Nile," said one of them, "I come from the far west, from a city close to the Desert Lands. I have brought news, too; the Desert Apostles are gathering again, ready to fight the remaining Precure."

"How?" Mirage asked. "Dune is dead. Moonlight killed him. Without their leader, they were crushed."

"They have a new leader," Nile said, and when Mirage gave her an inquisitive stare, she began to stutter. "A-Ah, t-that is all I know, sorry. I have only heard whispers about a change of leadership. It was a recent thing. I planned to stay there and find out more, and keep fighting, but… Well, my fellow Cures were all defeated. Alone, I could not face the Apostles, so I thought that the Phoenix Tower was my last hope…"

"You are welcome here," Mirage said, while Iona wrote everything down on parchment. Another relic that proved how old the Tower was, she thought. "Rest now, child. It must have been a long way from the Desert Lands."

Iona asked the others one by one, though mostly they had nothing new to say. Majorland has fallen, the Fountains have been tainted, all they said was already known. Still, Iona wrote down their names and their tales, and sent them to their quarters.

"A-Are there other Cures here?" The last girl asked when it was her time to answer. "We are not the only ones, are we?"

"You are the first Precure to arrive," Iona said, and her words crushed the girl. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm looking for my sister," she said, on the verge of tears. "My name is Orina, Cure Wave. My sister and I were separated, and I thought that maybe I could find her here, she knew it to be a safe place. So I hoped…"

"I see," Iona said, uncomfortable. "I was looking for my sister too, but-"

The girl began to cry, and all that Iona wanted was to be as far away as possible from her. It made her think of Maria again. How could she comfort this girl, when she herself was in need of comfort too?

"Don't lose hope," was all she managed to say. "You'll find her. Even if it is difficult, you need to keep trying, alright? Please don't cry, and don't give up."

"A-Alright," she said, uncertain, and left after Iona gave her the direction for her quarters. She hoped that this girl would receive kinder news of her sister than Iona had to hear. She did not believe it, though. Good news were a rare thing nowadays.

That was all, she thought as she set aside her quill, but two other girls were coming in. Iona faked a smile, as she knew very well that the Phoenix Tower was the last hope of the Precure who arrived, so it was not fitting for them to be greeted by a frown, or a face in despair. It was a false smile, but a smile nonetheless. However, when she saw who it was that entered, her smile became a scowl.

There was no way she could even pretend to smile at Princess.

"What are you doing here?" Iona blurted out. Her tone caught Hime by surprise, and the girl next to her too, the cook. How did Yuko even become a Precure? Iona had no doubt that Hime decided to make her a Precure, that spoiled girl who always got what she wanted.

"Why do you want to know?" Hime asked, defiant. "All Precure are welcomed in the Phoenix Tower, and we are Precure."

"Don't you dare call yourself a Precure," Iona stepped towards her. She put a hand on her pocket, to feel the Pretty Change Mirror that had once belonged to her sister. It was because of this girl that Maria was gone. It was because of this girl that everything was ruined. It took all of Iona's strength to keep her from striking her.

"Why are you so angry?" Hime asked, but Iona noticed a hint of hesitation in her voice. "What happened for you to be like this?"

"You don't even know what you did…"

"W-What I did? Is that why you're so angry at me? Well, everyone is angry at me, I'm used to it. But anger will do you no good, and I have been travelling with Yuko for a long time now, and we are tired. Let us in."

"N-Now, Hime, maybe I should be the one to talk," Yuko said, but Hime shook her head.

"Maria Hikawa. Do you know the name?" Hime didn't answer. "Say that name. Maria Hikawa. Do you know her? Do you know what happened to her?"

"I know her," she said slowly. "I don't know what happened to her, but if she died or something, you can't possibly blame me. I made a mistake, that's all."

"A mistake," Iona didn't know if she should laugh or scream. "Just a mistake. That's all. That's all…"

"I will fix it!" She said, jumping towards Iona. "Look, I'm sorry, I really didn't know what would happen."

"You little idiot," Iona lashed out, "the Precure were winning the war! Dune had just been defeated, and the Trump Kingdom was just a few battles away from being liberated. They were so close… And then you had to take the Dream Collet, didn't you? What were you thinking?"

"I-I wanted to make my dream come true," Hime said. "I wanted to use it to end the war, to make the world safe forever. That's why I took it."

"And lost it immediately!" She approached Hime, who stepped back to hide being Yuko. "It was safe. We didn't need it. We were going to win. We-" Why was she saying _we_? She was not a Precure. Yet she felt the Pretty Change Mirror grow warm.

"I know I'm wrong," Hime said. "I know it more than anyone else. I didn't think I was being followed. I-"

"Everyone knew you are a spoiled girl, a weak Precure, careless, clumsy and thoughtless, even our enemies. So why did it surprise you that they took the Dream Collet from you?"

She said nothing. She just began to cry. The silence was so absolute that Iona could hear Hime's tears falling on the floor. Iona felt guilty, for a second, but she thought of Maria, and Hime's tears felt like vengeance.

"Please," Yuko said, trying to calm down Hime, "don't be so hard on her. She knows she's wrong, and she paid dearly for it. She lost her parents, her home. Even our friend Megumi. She didn't do it because she's a bad person. She just… She just made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. Hers was just more costly than most."

"I can't forgive her," Iona said, thinking of Maria. Would Maria want her to be so cruel to this girl? Iona knew she wouldn't, but she couldn't help it. When she saw this girl cry, when she remembered all she did, it made her happy. It was because of Hime that she was all alone. It was because of Hime that so many kingdoms had fallen, so many had died, so many millions were enslaved, or trapped in mirrors. "I can't," she repeated. "Get out. Leave. Now."

"Please, you can't tell us to leave. It's not safe outside, it is dark and cold, sometimes too hot, and we are hungry. Please…" Yuko said again, and the way she pleaded made Iona hate herself for being so wroth, but now she could not help it anymore. Her heart burned, and her words were fire.

"Leave, or I will make you leave," she took out her sister's Pretty Change Mirror. No, it was hers now. Her body shone as she transformed, and she felt lighter, but stronger, faster. "I don't want you here, Princess. Don't make me hurt you."

She did not even know if she could actually fight them, and she didn't care. The memory of Maria burned, keeping her ablaze, furious. Still, Hime said nothing, and only nodded.

"Alright," she said, defeated. "Yuko, let's go."

"But Hime…"

"Let's find somewhere else," she said, turning back. "Come on."

Yuko tried to protest one more time, but silenced herself. She turned back as well, and alongside Hime, she left the Phoenix Tower. As they faded away, devoured by the night's veil, the fires in Iona began to die down, and when her heart was cold again, it hurt. She should not have done that. A Precure should not be like that. Maria would have been ashamed of her. That thought hurt the most.

Iona ran outside, to look for Hime and Yuko, but they were already gone. It was too dark to find them, on this starless night.

Not starless, she noticed as she saw a single star twinkling fraily. Iona could not even bring herself to care about it, though she knew it was a miracle. She just stood there, thinking, feeling guilty over her anger, and feeling angry for her guilt. She looked up, hoping that the star would bring her some comfort, but it was a single light against the darkness, too small to do anything.

She stepped back inside, thinking a thousand thoughts at once, all of them tearing her apart. She looked at herself, at her own Precure form, and it felt so wrong. She looked so much like her sister, but her sister would never have been so cruel.

Iona returned to her bedroom, hands shaking, body shivering. She looked at all her fortune-telling objects, and felt compelled to ask them about the future. She took her cards, shuffled and cut them, and then laid them out. She began to choose them, to read them, but they revealed nothing useful, nothing new. Your fortunes will change, they said. That was what they always said.

"Cure Fortune," she said to herself, staring at those cards that showed nothing, laughing despite everything. She needed a name, didn't she? Cure Fortune… A perfect name for one without a future.

* * *

><p>Nozomi had always loved parties, but somehow she could not bring herself to enjoy this one. The fairies, freed from their masks, celebrated with music and food and cheering, but that joy did not reach Nozomi's heart. She just stared at Coco, still asleep on a tiny bed, the perfect size for a fairy. She wondered when he would awaken. Soon, she hoped, but there was no way to know. Pinceau told her to wait, and she waited, but she had never been good at it. She walked around, thinking a thousand thoughts that she forgot a moment later. She sighed, and sat down by Coco's side.<p>

She had never been able to have fun when she was all by herself. Nozomi saw fairies dancing together, flowers on their heads, and she thought of Rin. Rin would often put flowers on Nozomi's hair when they were together alone at the gardens of the Cinq Lumières. There was empty space in her heart that Rin had once filled, as well as Urara, Komachi, Karen… More than anything else, she wished they could be with her. If they were, she would feel no fear, no doubt, no worries. No matter how hard things were, when she had her companions, she could overcome them.

Now, she was not so sure. Pinceau was a stranger to her, and did not seem to want to be much more than that, and trying to approach Reika was like braving a blizzard. Whenever Nozomi asked her about her life, her answers were so short, as if she did not even want to answer them. But still Nozomi wanted to know, she wanted to get closer to Reika. They should cling together, now that the world was empty and dark, but Nozomi's best efforts all failed. Nozomi looked outside her window, and saw a lone star shining, a flimsy light, a frail thing that was drowned by the darkness around it. By itself, it made no difference.

"Excuse me," a high-pitched voice called her. It was a fairy, white and with short ears that made it look much alike a mouse. "Miss Dream, King Donuts would like to thank you and Miss Beauty personally for lighting the Starlight Flame, for freeing us."

"Ah," Nozomi said, embarrassed. She hoped she would not be asked to make a speech. "Alright. I'm going."

She followed the fairy through well-lit corridors: the torches on the walls had been lit, and the palace, though still a bit empty, looked almost beautiful. Still, there was much work to be done, Pinceau and King Donuts had said, and on the next day, the citizens of the Doughnut Kingdom would start rebuilding.

Reika, Pinceau, the king and a hundred fairies awaited for her at the throne room. On the corners of the walls, Nozomi could still see cobwebs, and parts of the floor were still thick with dust. Still, she could not deny that the lights made the place look warmer and more inviting, much unlike the cold and dead room they had found when they first came to Frosting.

"Cure Dream," the king said in a fatherly tone. As he began to speak, the music quickly died down as the musicians put down their instruments. "I'm thankful you have joined us."

"It's an honor," Nozomi said, kneeling. She had learned that it was proper to do so when Rin screamed at her for being disrespectful when she met the king and queen of the Blue Sky Kingdom. Since then, Nozomi never forgot her courtesies.

"You and Beauty have done us a great favor, the greatest favor we could have asked for in our hour of need," he began. "You brought back our stars," he said, and Nozomi almost said that it was only a single star, but bit her lip and held back her words, "bringing a little light into this darkest night. So long as the stars shine above us, evil cannot reach us. Such is what is said in the Pledge. The magic of the stars protects us from the dark powers of our enemies, breaking the spell that kept us enslaved by Nightmare's masks, and in return, we protect the Starlight Flames."

The Pledge. Of course Nozomi knew about it, every Precure did. Countless thousands of years ago, when the Precure were still scattered all over the world with no organization or leadership, the Order of the Red Rose was founded by Cures Empress, Priestess, Magician. Before then, the world was dark, plagued by undying evils, but those three Precure worked together to vanquish their foes, and to create the Starlight Flames, bringing the stars to life where once there were none. It was because of them that the night sky was full of stars, and the world was safe. In return for the protection of the Precures, all the countries agreed to support the Red Rose in whatever they needed. Such was the Pledge between the Cures and the rest of the world.

"I have no words to properly thank you," he said, "but as our champions, you may ask me for anything, and if I can give it to you, I will do it. You have my full support as well, and my kingdom's as well."

"Anything…" Nozomi wanted to ask for her friends back, but she knew that was not appropriate. "I just want to rest for a while. I'm exhausted."

"Likewise, said Reika. Her eyes met Nozomi, and she smiled.

"Very well," the king said, almost disappointed. "Well, you have free reign in my castle, so you may do whatever please you. As for me, I must talk to Cure Pinceau, so I need to leave as well."

King Donuts began to whisper something that only Pinceau could hear, though Nozomi did not care enough to try to listen. She turned back, and returned to her quarters. Behind her, Reika followed her and did the same.

"You did well tonight," Reika said. "I would have fallen if not for you. Thank you."

"You saved me as well. Everything I heard about your skill was true. You really are an amazing fighter."

"Thank you," she said, her voice still cold, as if she just repeated something she had said a hundred times before without meaning it. "And… Sorry for arguing with you."

"It's alright," Nozomi knew there was no point in being bitter over the past. What was done was done. "It might have been for the best."

"Do you want to get some air?" Reika asked, pointing at the open door that led to the castle gardens. Nozomi only nodded, and followed her.

The night was still warm, though it seemed a little bit colder close to Reika. The two of them looked up, at the lone star that tried to fight the darkness all by itself.

"Almost like us," Nozomi said without thinking. Reika gave her a puzzled look, and Nozomi hurried to explain. "Ah, I mean… It's just a single star, no? Darkness surrounds it, and though it tries its best, its light is too dim to fight it."

"Are we the star, then? Just the two of us, fighting the night, the darkness?"

"So it seems," Nozomi laughed. "We don't know how many other Cures are there, or where they are. There's Pinceau, yes, but… Ah, I'm sorry, I must sound so stupid."

"You don't," Reika put a hand on Nozomi's shoulder, and stepped closer to her. "I understand what you mean. It does seem kind of hopeless, no?"

"I wouldn't call it that," Nozomi said. Nothing was truly hopeless, she said once to Urara. Some things are so extremely difficult that they might never come true, and even if they do, you must fight so hard that sometimes it might feel like it's not even worth it, but nothing is ever hopeless. "But it is sad sometimes. And lonely, too."

"Hm? You feel lonely, Nozomi?"

"Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. It's just… May I be honest?"

"Please be."

"I barely know you, and you are so different from me. You are so smart, so calm and gentle, and thoughtful… I'm kind of dumb, hasty, and sometimes I'm a bit too rough… I just feel like you would be better off with someone else."

"I wondered that too, sometimes," somehow the fact that she admitted it made it less painful. "And I also don't mean any offense, it's just that I miss my friends. I don't know to fight without them. I'm trying my best, but it still feels so wrong, like I'm screwing up at every step."

"You aren't! We aren't screwing up. We've done rather well, actually, you and I, considering how dire our situation is. I think we can work together, if we try."

"Then we must try," Reika smiled.

"I want to get to know you," Nozomi blurted out. "I want to be your friend, Reika. I want to fight by our side, and I want the two of us to not feel lonely anymore. Do you want that too?"

"I do," she said, and for the first time her smile seemed warm. "Tell me," she sat down, and Nozomi did the same, "where did you use to live?"

"I wasn't born there, but since I became a Precure, I had my quarters at the Cinq Lumières, shared with my friend Rin."

"Oh, the Cinq Lumières? I always wanted to go there, I heard it's an excellent academy, and…"

Under the night sky, they shared tales, they shared dreams, and they shared laughter. Reika's laughter was so gentle, and just as elegant as she was. Nozomi almost felt embarrassed when she guffawed loudly, but she was enjoying herself far too much to feel bad. Far away, she could hear music coming from inside the castle, and even farther, the sounds of the city, of Frosting, now alive again. The night was still black and eerie, but as the single star shone high above, Nozomi could not help but notice that the world was indeed just a little bit brighter.


	5. The Birdcage

The wind was always blowing in the Eyrie, bringing fluffy snow and biting breezes with it, yet Mai always kept her windows open. The wind was, after all, the only trace she had of the outside world, and she treasured it greatly. It was always the wind that kissed her good morning, and good night as well. When it touched her skin, it felt as if someone was by her side.

When she turned to look, however, in desperate hope, she found herself alone. Save for her jailer, who was not much company, she found herself all by herself in her prison without gates or bars. There was no need for that in the Eyrie: no prisoner could possibly descend the mountain, not alone, unprepared, not with this cold. Almost no Precures would be capable of such a feat.

And most certainly not a Precure who could not even transform on her own. Once, when she had Saki with her, Mai felt so strong, so safe, and together their magic was remarkable, one of the most powerful that the Precure had ever known. And yet, when they were apart, they were useless. Almost all the other Cures could at the very least transform when they were alone, even if they were not as strong as they could be with their partners, but not Bloom and Egret. That which made them so powerful was also their greatest weakness.

The wind blew cold from the darkness outside. Night had fallen quickly tonight, Mai noticed, or at least she thought so. It was hard to tell, nowadays. She had been trapped in the Eyrie for a week. Or was it two? Mai tried to count the sunrises and sunsets, at first, but then she quickly stopped. What was the point, when all days were exactly the same?

Well, not quite the same. On her first day, she at least had Choppy with her, before her captor took the fairy from her. Mai begged Namakelder to let Choppy stay with her, but he ignored her pleas.

He ignored most things, in truth. He ignored the loud, howling wind, he ignored the avalanches that shook the mountain, he even ignored Mai most of the time when she reached out to him. At most, he gave her an annoyed frown and a sigh as he went back to sleep.

He was lazing around tonight, as always. He was not awake, not truly, only between sleeps. At least that was what he called it when he actually had to eat or, in fact, do anything that wasn't merely sleep.

"Can't sleep?" He actually bothered to acknowledge her existence; it wasn't something he did very often. Mai had not yet decided if it was because he disliked her or because he just could not bother acknowledging anything at all.

"It's still too early."

"It's never too early to sleep, only too late," he grinned. "You're going to be here for a while, so you should sleep as long as you can."

"No," it seemed like such a miserable fate. Life in this cage was not something worth living. "I don't want to sleep."

"Odd," he said, pouring some coffee on his mug. How he could sleep with all that caffeine was still a mystery to Mai. "Well, I'm sorry you're so sad here, but I can't let you leave. Maybe if you'd like I could try and get you some books, in the next few months? Someone will have to come to bring supplies, after all, so I can make a request. To tell the truth, I rather like books. They're a good way to spend a lazy day, when you're not sleeping, so long you don't have to think too hard. Would you like some books, then?"

"That would be nice, but I don't plan on staying here that long," she said. Powerless as she was, it would do her no good to give up on hope.

"Don't you get tired of being so defiant?"

"Never," she said, and he laughed.

Namakelder wasn't the most unpleasant of people, and for that Mai was grateful. If she was held captive by some of those awful soldiers of Dark Fall… She might not even be alive, in truth. She thought of Saki, and prayed that she too had been lucky. Still, she wondered who Namakelder served.

"Can I ask you something?" Namakelder only shrugged. Mai took that as permission. "Are you with Dark Fall? Or do you work for someone else?

"Why are you so curious, girl?"

"I just am," she said. "Is it a bad thing to want to know more?"

"I suppose not," he said, smiling, "but I cannot tell you. It was a real pain finding a job like this, you know, where I don't have to do much, and get paid even though I spend most of my time sleeping. Or chilling out," he laughed bitterly as another cold breeze blew into the prison. "Anyways, my employers might not be happy if I go around revealing information to prisoners."

"But it's just the two of us here, nobody will know!"

"Oh," his smile suddenly died. His face approached Mai's, and he spoke as if sharing a secret, "they will know. They see and know all."

"They?"

"They," he repeated.

"Is it the Dusk Zone?" Mai asked. She had heard from Nagisa and Honoka that the Dark King was always watching over his servants, destroying those who displeased him.

"Dusk Zone?" He laughed again. "Well, I suppose you had no way of knowing it… The Dusk Zone is gone, and so is its liege. The Dark King grew greedy, displeased with the way the world had been divided between all the kingdoms and organizations that destroyed the Precure. You know, Nightmare took over the Palmier Kingdom and its surroundings lands, Labyrinth claimed the prosperous regions of the fallen Sweets Kingdom, full of valuable resources. Well, Dark Fall and the Dusk Zone's territories were really close, and the Dark King wanted a bit more land…"

"So they went to war?"

"More or less. No armies were raised, but the Dark King and Akudaikan fought one another in a duel to the death. Now, these are just stories, I don't believe them all myself, but I've been told that their battle was so fierce that entire cities were destroyed, and the whole region became a terrible ruin. Nasty thing, you know, they had already won, they should be resting and enjoying themselves, not fighting," he said, and, as if remembering he too needed some rest, he stepped away from Mai and jumped back on his comfortable couch.

"So," Mai urged him on, "what happened?"

"Akudaikan killed the Dark King after a long battle," Namakelder said, lowering his hat to cover his eyes, "but Akudaikan himself was wounded, and he died as well. And, somehow, Dark Fall assimilated the Dusk Zone."

"How? If both of their leaders were killed…"

"They have a new leader now," he said, barely holding back laughter. "That Goyan fellow."

"Goyan?" Namakelder had to be mocking her. Goyan, that little green… Thing. "Impossible."

"That's what I thought too," Namakelder said, "but Mucardia promised me it was true, and Hosshiwa confirmed it."

"Mucardia? Hosshiwa?"

"Ah…" He seemed to shrink on the couch. "I should not have said that. Ah, well, it makes no matter, probably. You're not going to leave, anyways."

He began to make a comically fake snoring sound; clearly he wanted this conversation to be over. Mai obliged, and returned to her window, where she pretended she could watch the world. She only pretended: it was too dark to see anything.

The darkened sky hurt her more than anything else, though. At her home, she'd often watch the skies with her father, with her brother, counting the stars, naming them. She never said it, for it was a childish thought, but Mai was thankful that she had those stars to make the night less dark, more inviting. Happier. But now it was all gone: the stars, the observatory in her house, and her family.

She could see it if she tried; her father and brother next to her, pointing at constellations, reciting their names perfectly. Mai didn't know nearly as much as they did, but she tried her best to learn, and she always listened to what they told her. The stars, Kazuya had said once, when Mai was only a child, not only give us light, keeping the nights safe and beautiful, but they also give power to the Precure, who watch over us.

Back then, she did not yet even dream of becoming a Precure, yet the thought always fascinated them, so she was always asking questions, though the answers not always as satisfactory as she might have wanted: as knowledgeable as her family was, even they could not know all about the Pretty Cure. Only when she became Cure Egret did Mai begin to learn about their secrets.

She learned that the stars weren't only light, but the very essence of the magic wielded by the Precure. From the simplest forms of magic, like spells brought to life with a mere thought, to the more complex ones, like reading the Fates, all magic depended on the stars. No wonder they had been so easily crushed when the stars all died. Mai could feel her own wind magic falter, her attacks become little more than worthless breezes.

She sighed, and looked up again. She wondered if Saki was staring at this same sky as she did, and if she still held any hopes. Mai hoped so.

Something caught her attention, something fleeting. When Mai turned to look at it, it was gone. Could it be…? The hope she still had told her yes, but at the same time, it was too unlikely. Mai focused her eyes on the canvas of darkness, until a star was suddenly painted on it. A single star, its light barely noticeable, but there it was, that small spot of white.

On her heart, she felt something she had not felt in a long time. It wasn't hope, for she had never lost that, but something else entirely. She felt the wind touch her face, gently now, a friend's touch, as if saying it was alright now.

"Please," Mai said to the wind. She could feel her magic returning, if only a little. She hoped it would be enough. "Please, listen, and let my words reach someone. My name is Mai Mishou. I'm a Precure. I'm being held captive at the Eyrie with my fairy Choppy, away from my partner Saki Hyuuga, Cure Bloom. Please, if this wind reaches you and you can somehow hear my message, please help me. I can't fight without my partner, so please, I'm depending on you."

The wind idled for a moment, and then it blew away, carrying Mai's hopes with it. If a star was shining again, a Starlight Flame had been lit, so there were still Precure fighting. She would be fighting too, if she had the chance, but for now, all she could do was ask for help, and hope that it would come.

She laid on her bed and closed her eyes, and fell asleep to the melody of the wind.

* * *

><p>From her bed Nozomi watched as the sun colored the sky with yellow flame. There she lingered, watching as the blue filled the skies, feeling the breeze that entered through her open window, thinking back on her odd dream. It could not be the truth, yet it felt so real.<p>

Egret, was that the name? Nozomi could not remember ever hearing it, but maybe she had just not paid attention. That wouldn't be too surprising. Still, Reika would like to hear this.

Nozomi closed her window; if Karen knew that she slept with it open, with the wind hitting her face, she would be so upset over her carelessness. It wouldn't be so bad, to tell the truth.

There was a quick knock on her door; Nozomi rushed to answer it, still wearing her pajamas (an ugly grey thing, more rag than clothing, but it kept the cold away, at least). Behind the door was a fairy, floating, as fairies loved to do so that they could talk to humans while being able to look at them in the face.

"Yes?"

"Miss Dream," the fairy said in a polite tone, "Miss Pinceau is calling you. She says that your fairy friend has awakened."

"Coco?" Nozomi asked, and immediately realized what a silly question it was. "Is he alright?"

"Yes, don't worry, he is healthy," the fairy smiled. "Pinceau and King Donuts explained to him what had happened, and so he wanted to talk to the person who had saved his life."

Nozomi nodded, and said that she would meet with him soon. She was not the person who had saved his life, though, at least not the only one. If not for Komachi, they would have never escaped. Komachi… The memory still hurt.

Once properly dressed, Nozomi followed the fairy through the now-tidy corridors of the palace. It looked almost like a proper castle now; the fairies had furnished it as well as they could, though most had been pillaged. Still, emptiness could not deprive the castle of the beauty on its walls, on its elaborately-patterned tiles along the floor.

Coco was surrounded by Reika, Pinceau, King Donuts, and a small pink fairy who kept putting a hand on Coco's forehead, and asking him questions about his well-being, to which he always answered by saying he felt alright.

"Coco," Nozomi said with relief. He seemed much better than he did when they left him with Pinceau.

"Hello," he greeted her awkwardly. He must not have expected her to be so happy to see him, but after all that she had lost, it was a miracle to see that not all was gone. "Nozomi, right?" She nodded. "Thank you for taking care of me while I was… Ah, well I don't actually know what happened to me."

"You are a prince of the Palmier Kingdom," King Donuts didn't seem to care about keeping it a secret, "so your life is connected to your land, and to everything that surrounds it. The Palmier Kingdom is the greatest of the fairy kingdoms, so when the stars above our lands went out, you felt it worse than us."

"Then that means that the same thing happened to Nuts," he said. "Why did I wake up?"

"We lighted a Starlight Flame," Reika explained. "That must be it."

"I don't know," Coco said. "It all seems so odd. This did not happen to the other fairies, did it? Only to the rulers of the fairy kingdoms."

"So it seems," King Donuts said. "When the Starlight Flare was lit, at least, I was freed from Nightmare. But… Well, if I said I understand everything, I would be lying. This is why I'm sending Pinceau to the Phoenix Tower."

"I will begin my journey today," she said. "And maybe at the Tower there will be answers to be found, if there is anyone there. And even if they cannot answer us, it would be good to go there, no? We must reclaim it, if it was taken, and if not, we must meet with the Cures there to keep fighting together."

"Sounds like a plan, then," Nozomi said. "I have one, too."

"Do you, now?" Reika was curious. "Tell us, please."

"I had a dream," she began, and could see as Pinceau raised an eyebrow, "a dream about a Precure. Cure Regret? No, that's not it. Something of the sort."

"Egret?" Pinceau asked.

"I guess so," Nozomi said, and continued. "She talked to me in my dream. I mean, not to me, but to whoever could hear her. She said she's being held at the Eyrie, by our enemies. She asked me for help, in my dream, although it wasn't just a dream, I think. She was talking to the wind, and…"

King Donuts and Pinceau were both looking at her as if she had lost her mind. Even Coco didn't seem certain at all. Reika, at least, seemed to be taking her seriously, and for that, Nozomi was glad.

"It's true, I swear it, no matter how weird it sounds!"

"I believe you."

"I do not," said Pinceau. "No offense, but a dream? You are not a prophet, your dreams cannot tell the future."

"It wasn't a prophetic dream or anything of the sort! It was a warning that Egret sent, hoping it would reach someone. I didn't just dream about her for no reason; she was asking for help with her magic."

"Magic," Pinceau scoffed. "A fancy word to explain that which you cannot actually explain."

"Now, now, Pinceau…"

"I am sorry, but I think you'll be wasting your time if you chase this dream. You should go with me to the Phoenix Tower, at least there we can be certain that we'll find something of use."

"No," Coco suddenly said. "I think we can believe in Nozomi's dream. Dream messages aren't unheard of. My own mother had a couple of those!"

"If you say so, then alright," said Pinceau. "I just do not think it is healthy to believe too much in anything."

"But at the same time, a life lived with no beliefs is a life worth very little," Reika said. "It seems that ever since the Axia Crisis, the Precure have been too hesitant to put their faith into anything. Well, now we must make a leap of faith, and hope for the best, or we will just wither and await our inevitable fate."

"Well said," Coco got up despite his nurse's protests. "You're going, then?"

"Yes, I will go with Nozomi," Reika said, smiling.

"I will give you as much food and water as you may need," King Donuts declared. "I just hope you don't need too much. Our reserves aren't in the best shape."

"Thank you," said Nozomi. "We'll go as soon as we can, then. The faster we rescue Egret, the better."

"I'll go with you, too," Coco said. Donuts ran towards him, to try and change his mind, but Coco didn't want to hear anything. "The Precure need fairy partners, don't they? Well, as prince of the Palmier Kingdom, I think I'd make for a pretty good partner."

"You don't have to go if you don't want to, though," Nozomi said. "It'll be dangerous."

"You don't have to tell me that. I want to go and I want to fight. This world is mine as well, and so are its stars. I want to help."

"Alright, then," Nozomi shook his tiny hand. "We'll be glad to have you with us, Coco."

* * *

><p>The moon twisted and turned in a fever dream, her body sprawled on the bed, contorting as she wailed. Rikka watched, not knowing what to do, not knowing how to ease Yuri's pain. It would be funny if it wasn't so painful: Cure Moonlight, one of the most skilled Cures to ever live, defeated by the night, despite her name. While the sun shone, she walked with determination, stoic and watchful, but when it was time to rest, nightmares plagued her.<p>

Rikka took her hand, but Yuri's nails cut her, and she had to let go. She took the small cup from the bed table nearby, and gently poured its contents on Yuri's mouth. Still asleep, she grimaced. No wonder, that liquid was bitter and foul-smelling. Still, it was the only thing that could keep her worst nightmares at bay, so Rikka gave it to Yuri despite her displeasure. Dreamfrond tea was disgusting, but it worked well, ensuring solace from nightmares. And still Yuri suffered; Rikka could only wonder how she would be without her help.

They had found this shack just before sunset, a great relief for them. Sleeping in the woods was not just unpleasant, but dangerous. This broken-down house was only unpleasant; too cold, its wooden walls all devoured by termites. Rikka could see the holes wherever she looked. If it rained, there would be leaks, no doubt, or worse. It did not seem as if this house could withstand a storm.

"Poor girl," said Raquel. The fairy sitting atop the bed table, watching over Yuri with his partner. "And poor you, too, you haven't slept in… How long?"

"Just two days," Rikka said. It was not as if she never slept. Sometimes Yuri wasn't suffering that much, and Rikka could get some rest. "I'm fine, Raquel. Besides, it's not like I can sleep knowing she needs help."

"Right," the fairy nodded. "I wish you wouldn't sacrifice yourself for the sake of others like this, though. You need to take care of yourself too, or you'll end up like…"

Rikka glared at her fairy. She did not like to reminded of that.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude like that. It's just that… Maybe if Mana wasn't so tired, she'd be here with us."

"Enough," Rikka said, but then she was already thinking of Mana.

The situation at the Trump Kingdom was already critical even before the stars stopped shining. The fires of war devoured entire cities, and only when Moonlight arrived with reinforcements did it look like there was a chance for victory. And then the skies darkened.

Rikka closed her eyes, and she saw when the surviving Precure rushed to the docks, to escape the Trump Kingdom. The Jikochuu overwhelmed them, and not just them; there were other monsters as well, ones that Rikka had never seen. One of those masked creatures captured Alice and Lance, taking them away, and though Rikka and Mana meant to follow, they knew they had no chance against such a mighty force.

And then Makoto refused to leave the Trump Kingdom with them. She would not abandon her home, she said, and so she remained there with Davi. The two of them ran into a dark alley, and disappeared as well.

Even aboard their ship, however, they were not safe. Those awful creatures gave chase, and almost brought down their vessel. They fought back the monstrous vultures that served King Jikochuu, but Mana was thrown off the ship by them. She had not slept in days, and Rikka was sure that she wasn't eating as much as she should: she was so busy sharing and helping others that she destroyed herself and weakened her own body so much that in the end, she could not even fight. The last thing that Rikka saw of Mana was the water enveloping her as Sharuru tried to pull her up. The two of them were swallowed by the stream, and then they were gone.

"Sorry," Raquel said again. He could always tell when Rikka was thinking back on what had happened.

"It's okay. I'm sure she survived. I'm sure," she said, as if repeating herself would make it more likely to come true. "We'll need to gather more Dreamfrond tomorrow, by the way. We're almost out of it."

"Oh, alright. I'll make sure to remember."

Yuri whined again, trying to say something. Her words always came out twisted, impossible to understand. But Rikka didn't need words to understand what had happened. She had heard the rumors. Her fairy dead, and her father. And, if the rumors were true, what she did to her father's slayer was something that no Precure should ever do, no matter the circumstances.

It wasn't for her to judge, however. Yuri was her sole companion now, other than Raquel. She was silent, most of the time, and she seemed to be always sad, but Rikka couldn't blame her for that. She had suffered so much, and all that Rikka wanted was to make her pain a little less terrible.

"I wish I knew where we are," Raquel said. "Somewhere to the east of the Trump Kingdom?"

"So it seems. Pass me that other cup," she asked. It was the last one they had, so it had to last until dawn.

Raquel did as he was told. He had become quite adept at helping Rikka tend to the wounded at the Trump Kingdom; there was no magic that could properly heal a person, so it all had to be done by hand, but Rikka didn't mind it. She could not even count how many lives she had save, even though she had, at first, sworn that she would remember all their names and their faces. It was harder than she thought, however, with all the people hurt during the fighting.

Yuri moaned once again, and with a sigh, Rikka made her drink more of the tea. By dawn, Moonlight would be fine again, strong once more, so it hurt to see her like this. Rikka wished she could somehow stop her pain, not just alleviate it. For a moment she turned her head to look outside, and though she could see a star in the sky, the moon was gone. Rikka felt a chill.

It would be a long night, she knew it. They always were.

* * *

><p>We are prisoners of fate, Iona thought as she told these girls the sentence she saw in her cards. Through the window, the wind blew cold, as it was wont to do. Iona could not decide if the preferred the scorching hot days or the unpleasantly cold ones, but right she would kill for some sunshine.<p>

"Iona?" Cure Nile called her attention.

"Oh, right," she returned to her cards. This was a special deck, one that could tell the future more accurately, or at least it was supposed to. "Tell me," she took Nile's hand, "what is it that you wish to be revealed, child?"

"Will I go back home?"

Iona guided the girl's hand to the cards; five piles had been laid on their backs upon the small table, each with over a dozen cards. Nile herself had to shuffle and divide them. She took them one by one, and put them side by side, their contents not yet revealed.

"Ask your heart," Iona said the words she was supposed to say, and nothing else, "are these the cards that really hold your destiny? Do you feel that once you reveal them, your fate will appear before your eyes?"

"I…" She hesitated. "Can I choose other cards?"

"Of course," Iona picked up the cards and put them on the bottom of the piles, and then shuffled again. Then she asked the question again; sometimes this could go on for a very long time, when she tried to tell the fortune of a really indecisive person, whose heart was uncertain.

"Show them," Nile asked, and Iona obeyed. The first card was the Girl, the most common of them all. A standard hundred-card deck had five of those, and some variations, even more. "Is that me?" She asked, but Iona didn't answer. It was not for her to answer, anyways.

Then came the Sorrow, represented by a weeping crone, her face disfigured by her own tears. There were not many ways to interpret that card. After that was the House and its small shack drawn with simple shapes. It could indeed mean home, whatever that was, because home could mean a million things. A childhood village, a lullaby that only your mother sang. Maria.

"Iona?" Nile asked her again. This time Iona hadn't gotten so distracted, but when one sees the Sorrow, they tend to get impatient, desperately curious about their omens.

"The fourth…" It was the Serpent. An ill omen, it was said, but then again, all portents could be ill omens if you tried hard enough to see harm in them. Some thought the Serpent meant betrayal, but for Iona, if you felt betrayed when a snake sank its fangs on you, you are truly a great fool. Others said it meant poison, or even renewal, a serpent shedding its skin. And others even actually thought it warned of the arrival of a dragon, raining fire from the sky. Iona could only laugh at the idea, and it reminded her of how difficult it was to properly read the Fates.

At last came the King. It could symbolize duty to one's superiors, or subjugation. All the cards could mean so much: the actual ritual and the shuffling weren't the hard part of reading the Fates, anyone could do it. To extract meaning from them, however, when there was so much the cards could represent, took real experience. Iona was still young, but she had learned the art of the Fates from her family since she was only a child.

"Girl, House, Sorrow, Serpent, King," Iona repeated them as she tried to piece their meanings together. It would be easy to make sense of them if she had an entire day, but when telling someone's fortune, she had to think quickly. The truth was in front of her, in those cards, she only had to understand it. There once was a time where the Fates were used even by kings and queens to guide their actions, but now this art had lost much of its importance. Iona did not know if she should still have faith in the cards, as they had failed her before, but perhaps she had simply failed to see what they tried to tell her.

"A-A dragon destroyed my city?" Nile asked. People always tried to understand the meaning of their cards, even though it was the fortune teller's job. Iona didn't actually mind it, as it gave her a bit more time to try and see the truth. "And… It made everyone cry? Because all their houses were destroyed?"

"I don't think that's it," Iona said. "Girl… Followed by the House, it might indeed indicate your hometown. If the Serpent represents treachery, then the King means domination. The Fates tell me that the city where you used to live fell, through subterfuge, into the hands of a tyrant."

"But not a dragon?" Unbelievably, she sounded relieved.

"I don't believe so, no."

"Good," she said. "I'm sure the survivors can deal with a mere tyrant. But a dragon… That would be really bad!"

"There have been no dragon sightings in centuries, and when there were, they were never that close to the Desert Lands," Iona reassured her. "Rest easy."

Nile jumped up from her chair, smiling again. Smiles like that made Iona's hard work and years of study worth it. Of course, sometimes the Fates revealed terrible futures, and Iona didn't want to lie, to give false hopes, though at times she thought that perhaps it would be better if she did.

With Nile gone, Iona picked up her cards and shuffled them back together. She stared at her deck for a while, and then looked outside, at the desolation. She began to cut the cards as she asked herself what she should do next. She laid the piles one by one, and hoped that this time her answers would be of some use.

A strong gust blew inside, scattering her cards, undoing her work. Behind her, the door was closed shut. Grumbling, Iona got up to close her damned window, while the strong wind slapped her face.

Her cards were all scattered on the cold floor now, all over the room, a terrible mess. Yet on the table, five of them remained. Iona approached them hesitantly; this could be coincidence, so perhaps she should ignore it, and try again. But what if it meant something else? Somehow, when she looked into her heart, it felt like the answer for her question was truly in front of her.

Knight. Girl. Fairy. Peaks. Dungeon. Those were the cards she saw, and in half a heartbeat Iona knew what it meant. The Girl and the Fairy together could only mean one thing: a Precure, of course, as they always had fairies, or at least were meant to. Iona didn't, and some of the girls who arrived didn't as well. Mirage didn't, either, which Iona always found odd. The Knight most often meant rescue, or simply a warning of someone needing help, and the Peaks and the Dungeon could indicate a location. Where, though? Iona didn't know. She would need to ask Mirage.

Down she went, descending that insufferably long flight of stairs. She did not want to spit on Mirage's generosity, but Iona was seriously considering to make a request for a bedroom in a less inconvenient place.

Cure Mirage was often at the great hall in the center of the tower, awaiting new arrivals. Leadership suited her perfectly; she was an experienced Precure, a skilled fighter, and very wise and knowledgeable, as well. All the Cures of the Phoenix Tower admired her and listened to her commands.

She was not there today, however. The hall was strangely empty, though all the dust had been swept and the place was beginning to look as beautiful as it might have before the Death of the Stars. But they weren't dead anymore; a lone star shone helpless against the dark, desperately trying to ward off the cruel night, in vain.

"Are you looking for someone?" Orina asked as she passed by Iona. "Mirage?"

"Ah, yes. Was it so obvious?"

"A little," Orina chuckled. "You are always looking for Cure Mirage. One would think you're in love."

Iona paid no mind to the quip. She felt no shame in always seeking Mirage, to be taught about the way of the Precure, their history, their values. Mirage and Tender were partners, some of the most esteemed Cures of this generation. Iona would be a fool if she refused to try and learn from someone like her.

"Where is she?"

"Down there," Orina pointed at a door in the corner, almost impossible to see from afar. "The stairs there take to an old vault, or something. Mirage said she was looking for something there."

"Thank you," Iona said, and followed her directions.

The door was right behind the heel of the enormous statue of Cure Magician, and close to the shaft of the Miracle Dragon Glaive she held. It seemed almost as if the door was placed there as an afterthought. Perhaps it had not been there when the Tower was first built.

It led to a narrow stairway, dusty and dark. Far away, and far below, Iona could see a light, and she followed it, until she reached a round room lit by torches of Starfire. The walls were some sort of hard silver metal, and all along them were closed doors. Chests were scattered around, some clearly ancient, made of stone whose colors had faded. Others were not quite so old, made of wood, though their hinges and lock had rusted, and some trunks seemed as if they had been placed there recently.

There she found Mirage, examining a large box, so tall it almost reached her chest. Iona approached her, but before she could greet Mirage, she had already been noticed.

"Hello, Iona," she said without taking her eyes from the box's contents. "Have you come to see the Relic Vault?"

"Not really."

"Such a pity," she said, though she didn't sound like she actually cared much. "There's so much to be learned here. That door, the one behind the statue, it seems so frail but it actually can only be opened by a Precure. It's the only reason the Vault wasn't pillaged while the Cures were gone from the Tower, fighting our enemies all around the world when the stars went out."

"This place is so big," Iona didn't want to say something so obvious, but there wasn't much else that could be said. And, besides, the Vault _was_ amazingly big.

"Yes, indeed. It has to be this large to hold all the treasures the Precure have gathered and made throughout history, after all. Look at this," she slowly lifted something from inside the box. A crown of brittle silver, almost falling apart, surmounted by half a dozen roses that looked like steel. "Don't touch. The colors have faded from the roses, but the silver still clings to the crown, if weakly. This is, I'd say, about eight thousand years old."

"What is it, exactly?"

"The Crown of Roses," she said, bringing it closer to Iona's face. "Once, the Precure were not merely an organization but a true kingdom, its domain extending over most of the world. That kingdom was ruled by Pretty Cures who called themselves Rose Queens and wore this crown, that passed from mother to daughter for a long time, until at last, a queen died childless, and after a very complicated crisis that I don't have the time or the knowledge to explain, the rule of the Precure ended, and their lands fragmented into countless countries."

"I never heard of that," Iona admitted.

"It's because no wanted you to hear of it. The Precure have been very apt at keeping their history a secret from most. When the monarchy ended, all the regalia was brought to the Phoenix Tower, and the Relic Vault was built to hold them."

"And I suppose it holds the Sacred Treasures as well?" Iona asked. Of those she had heard; the artifacts wielded by Magician, Priestess and Empress weren't a secret to anyone.

"No," Mirage said, returning the crown to the chest. "The Red Rose says that they are kept safe here, but that's a lie. We don't actually know where they are. When Empress disappeared, she also took the Crystal Mirror with her. The Glaive was stolen, and the Crown may or may not be in the Blue Sky Kingdom, or it may actually be the Crown of Roses, or it might have been melted down by accident, although I don't actually think it's possible to destroy it," she turned back to the other doors of the Vault. "As far as we know, it might just be lost here. There are so many treasures here that in the end it all looks like a pile of trash, if I may be so honest."

"That's a bit too harsh, isn't it?"

"Probably," she said, "but I think you'll forgive me, as I've here for most of the day already."

"Are you looking for something?"

"Don't worry, I've already found it. Right now I'm just trying to organize things. After all, with all the magical weapons and artifacts we have here, surely there must be something that can help us in the battles to come."

"Battles to come? So you've decided to fight?"

"Of course. Not yet, mind you, there are too few of us, but should we find other Precures, we can try to fight back."

"Oh," Iona said, remembering the reason she was looking for Mirage. "There's something I must ask you."

"What is it?" Mirage asked, and Iona showed her the cards the wind had given her.

"This is a sign," Iona said. "Knight, Girl, Fairy. It means a Precure in need of help, I'm sure of it."

"Can any human truly be sure of what the Fates mean to say, though?" She shrugged.

"I'm sure of it," she repeated. "All I need to know is where she is. Peaks and Dungeon. Those are the remaining cards, and I'm sure they are trying to tell me her location."

"Peaks and Dungeon… A prison on a mountain, then? That would be the Eyrie, unless there is another place I haven't heard of. Will you go there?"

"I must."

"Now, I admire your enthusiasm and drive, but you do understand that the Eyrie is a distant place, and dangerous, too, it was always dangerous, even when the world was a safer place. And you have only your cards to trust."

"What else do I have?" Iona asked. "I can't just stay here and wait when I have the opportunity to do something."

"That much is true, but maybe you should be patient. Wait for more Cures to come, perhaps. We can explore and see if we can find something. We don't need to trust these omens."

"But I do trust them," Iona said. "I've learned to read them, to find the truth in them. And my heart tells me that I will indeed find a Cure held captive in the Eyrie."

"You say so, but tell me, how would the cards know? Is it a divine message? That's folly. We do not depend on the divine anymore," her tone was growing angry. "Divine, gods… Those are just different words for fate, and just as meaningless."

"I don't think fate is meaningless. I chose to listen to it, so I will seek this Precure in the Eyrie."

"Do as you will, then," Mirage said. "But remember that those who cling to signs are locked in fate's cage. The Fates, god, whatever you wish to call it… In the end, fate will make you its plaything, its little trapped bird. I don't want that to happen to you."

"I'll be careful, and I'll return with a Precure with me. Trust me, Mirage, as you've trusted Tender. I swear I'll make you both proud."

"I'll hope fortune favors you, then," Mirage said, putting a hand on Iona's cheek. "You are so alike your sister, did you know? She might not look like it, but she was quite stubborn when she decided to help someone. We have always argued, but I always loved her for that. Go, then, Iona. I will await your safe return."

Iona nodded, suddenly embarrassed. She was not often compared to Maria. It felt odd. Iona left in a hurry, trying not to think of it. As she went up the stairs and prepared to leave, she looked at the three great statues again. She stepped back so that she could see their faces. Magician's face was determined, fierce, while Priestess' was calm, like a perfect wise queen. Empress, however, seemed saddened by something. Iona shook off that thought. It was just a statue. It meant nothing.

She set out with the wind still weeping. The road was long, she knew it, and dangerous. But what wasn't dangerous now? It was Iona's fate, and she had to follow it. If that made her just a bird trapped in a cage, so be it. She would sing the song that fate ordained.

* * *

><p><em>From now on some more characters and locations will be introduced, so I can safely say that we have gotten to the real content of the story. I hope you've enjoyed it so far! Your thoughts are always appreciated, so don't hesitate to leave a comment!<em>


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